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SEVEN REASONS TO LEAVE THE MORMON CHURCH

By Loren Franck and Richard G. Owen

Mormon leaders try to immerse you in a false fear of God. They claim you forfeit eternal life when leaving The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (aka the Mormon church).

Fortunately, the Bible, God’s only book of scripture, teaches otherwise.

LIFE-GIVING STEPS

Ready to take two liberating, life-giving steps?

First, begin your new life—an incredible spiritual journey—with Jesus Christ (2 Corinthians 5:17; Galatians 6:15). After your required rebirth in Christ (John 3:3, 5;

1 Peter 1:23), your life will abound in his consummate grace, forgiveness and inner peace (John 10:10).

Second, if LDS, remove your name from Mormon church records. Stop attending. Stop giving Mormonism your money. The Lord wants you to leave that "domain of darkness" and enter the "kingdom of His beloved Son" (Colossians 1:13), which is composed of those who believe in the biblical Jesus.

You can’t transition if you remain in Mormonism. God asks people who worship him in “spirit and in truth” (John 4:23) not to bind themselves to unbelievers, associate with the lawless or fellowship with those in darkness (2 Corinthians 6:14).

Through the biblical Jesus, God has reconciled believers to himself and at the appropriate time will present us "holy and blameless and beyond reproach" in his presence (2 Corin-thians 5:18–21; Colossians 1:21, 22).

Take comfort in God’s word: “ . . . If you confess with your mouth Jesus as Lord, and believe in your heart that God raised Him from the dead, you will be saved; for with the heart a person believes, resulting in righteousness, and with the mouth he confesses, resulting in salvation  . . . for whosoever will call on the name of the Lord will be saved” (Romans 10:9, 10, 13).

Membership in the LDS church is a roadblock on the highway to heaven. When seeking eternal life, your relationship with Jesus Christ is all that matters (John 3:14–21; 2 Corinthians 5:14–21).

WHY A CHURCH?

People join a church for various reasons such as lively music or popular programs. Its pastor might have an acclaimed radio and TV ministry or might have authored best-selling books. Other people are locked into particular churches because they were born into them or because they’re near home.

But Christians, founded firmly on New Testament teachings, are to assemble, receive encouragement in the faith and help one other prepare for Christ’s second coming (Hebrews 10:25). Our experience in Christ's church, "the pillar and support of the truth" (1 Timothy 3:15), is vital to how God will confirm us "to the end, blameless in the day of our Lord Jesus Christ" (1 Corinthians 1:8).

So it's important to join the right church. In the Lord’s eternal plan, it can be a life-and-death matter. As a member of Christ's body, his true church, bona fide Christians abide in him, bear fruit and glorify our heavenly Father. This proves we’re genuine disciples of the Lord Jesus Christ (John 15:4–11).

But if you belong to a false church, one that’s manmade, you’ll fail to abide in Christ and will be damned forever (John 15:2, 6). In short, within Christ’s church, Christians fellowship with each other amid the spiritual light radiating from Christ. At the same time, they’re to flee Satanic darkness (2 Corinthians 6:14–18).

Mormonism is one of many worldly religions masquerading as Christ's true church. While it has a positive side—like Roman Catholicism, Islam and the Jehovah's Witnesses—Mormonism can rob you of eternal life.

There are many excellent reasons to leave the Mormon church. Here are seven of the best.

1. MORMONISM TEACHES A FALSE GOD

Adam is Not God

Brigham Young, Mormonism's second “prophet, seer and revelator,” is notorious for false teachings about deity. Speaking as president of the Mormon church, Young publicly urged Mormons to believe in Adam as a false god. Young proclaimed, "I have never yet preached a sermon and sent it out to the children of men, that they may not call scripture" (Journal of Discourses 13:95). John Taylor, the third Mormon church president, declared, "When Brother Brigham tells me a thing, I receive it as revelation" ("Minutes of Council of the Twelve in Upper Room of Historian's Office," April 5, 1860, cited in LDS Apostle Confesses Brigham Young Taught Adam-God Doctrine, Salt Lake City: Utah Lighthouse Ministry, 1982, Part 3, no page number).

Young's most infamous declaration of Mormonism’s Adam-God doctrine occurred April 9, 1852 in the Salt Lake City Tabernacle: "[Adam] is our Father and our God, and the only God with whom we have to do. Every man upon the earth, professing Christians or non-professing, must hear it, and will know it sooner or later," (Journal of Discourses 1:50). This wasn't mere opinion or a slip of the tongue. It was a definitive doctrinal pronouncement and was scripture to Mormons of Young's era.

Explaining this doctrine on another occasion, Brigham Young taught, “Some have grumbled because I believe our God to be so near to us as Father Adam. There are many who know that doctrine to be true” (Journal of Discourses 5:332). After preaching the Adam-God doctrine for more than twenty years, Young lamented, "How much unbelief exists in the minds of the Latter-day Saints in regard to one particular doctrine which I revealed to them, and which God revealed to me—namely that Adam is our father and God" (Deseret News, June 18, 1873, p. 308, italics added).

Bruce R. McConkie, a vigilant Mormon apostle and theologian during the 1970s and ’80s, admitted, "President Young did teach that Adam was the father of our spirits, and all the related things that [the Adam-God doctrine ascribes] to him . . . He expressed views that are out of harmony with the gospel" (Letter to Eugene England, February 19, 1981, p. 6, italics added).

But recall God’s word to ancient Israel, a people beleaguered by false prophets. "If a prophet . . . arises among you . . . saying, 'Let us go after other gods (whom you have not known) and let us serve them,' you shall not listen to the words of that prophet . . . for the Lord your God is testing you to find out if you love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul" (Deuteronomy 13:1–3).

Mormonism has failed the test.

A Progressing God

If the doctrine of a transient God were Mormonism's only flaw, it would disprove Mormonism. During his later life, the church’s founding “prophet,” Joseph Smith, taught that God has progressed. "God was once as we are now, and is an exalted man," Smith explained (Journal of Discourses 6:3). "God himself, the Father of us all, dwelt on an earth the same as Jesus Christ himself did.”

The devil loves this doctrine. He’s its author. In vision, the prophet Isaiah saw a pre-earthly war in heaven, after which Satan was thrust down to earth. Among the devil’s most rebellious acts was his claim to enter heaven and make himself like God (Isaiah 14:13, 14; Revelation 12:7–9).

Study the Bible thoroughly, however, and you’ll see how blasphemous the doctrine of a progressing God is. We discover from the Bible, our sole source of truth about God, that he has always been God (Psalm 90:2; 93:2;102:24; Job 36:26; Isaiah 41:4; Hebrews 13:8). Nobody is like him (Exodus 8:10; 15:11; Deuteronomy 33:26; 2 Samuel 7:22; Psalm 86:8; Jeremiah 10:6, 7; I Kings 8:23; 1 Samuel 2:2). Contrary to Joseph Smith's misconception, God never became deity. He has always been the one and only true God.

Many Gods?

During Smith's lifetime (1805–1844), his teachings about the Father, Son and Holy Ghost evolved. He initially proclaimed only one God, not one “Godhead” of three Gods as Mormonism now teaches (see History of the Church 6:473–479; Doctrine and Covenants 130:22.) Numerous passages in the Book of Mormon, first published in 1830, also teach there is only one God.

For example, Alma 11:28, 29 reads, “Now Zeezrom said: Is there more than one god? And he answered, No.” 2 Nephi 31:21 teaches of “ . . . the only and true doctrine of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost, which is one God . . . ” Other examples of Smith's monotheism include the Book of Mormon’s Mosiah 15:5 and Doctrine and Covenants 20:28.

Later in his life, well after the Book of Mormon was initially published and the LDS church established, Smith became a polytheist. “Many men say there is one God,” Smith says in History of the Church 6:476. “The Father, the Son and the Holy Ghost are only one God! I say that is a strange God anyhow—three in one, and one in three . . . he would be . . . a monster.”

Smith further claimed the “many gods and many lords” Paul mentions in 1 Corinthians 8:5 are Gods like the Father and the Son. However, verse 4 assures us the gods mentioned are idols. In fact, further erring from the truth, Smith insisted “the doctrine of a plurity [sic] of Gods is as prominent in the Bible as any other doctrine” (History of the Church 6:474).

But regardless of such irreverence, the Bible teaches unmistakably that God, the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, is the only true God (Deuteronomy 4:35, 39; 6:4; 2 Samuel 7:22; Isaiah 43:10, 11; 45:21–23, John 17:3; 1 Corinthians 8:4). Isaiah 44:8 declares our omniscient God doesn’t know of any Gods besides himself. The passage isn’t speaking about “the God we worship,” either, or about “the God pertaining to this earth.” As the chapter and context reveal, God is referring to all possible deities.

Is God Learning?

To Brigham Young, Wilford Woodruff and other Mormon prophets and apostles, the answer has been yes. Woodruff, who would later become Mormonism’s fourth president, affirmed that “God himself is increasing in knowledge . . . and will do so worlds without end” (Journal of Discourses 6:120). On several occasions, Young taught the same.

For example, while berating Mormon Apostle Orson Pratt for teaching God’s omniscience, Young spewed: “ . . . Pratt, has in theory, bounded the capacity of God. According to his theory, God can progress no further in knowledge and power, but the God that I serve is progressing eternally . . . ”     (Journal of Discourses 11:286, italics added). Pratt noted “there is no doctrine so absurd as to think that God will eternally progress in knowledge” ("Minutes of Council of the Twelve in Upper Room of Historian's Office,” April 5, 1860, cited in LDS Apostle Confesses Brigham Young Taught Adam-God Doctrine, Salt Lake City: Utah Lighthouse Ministry, 1982, Part 3, no page).

Scripture clearly says God knows all things (John 16:30; 1 John 3:20). All means all. As Hebrews 4:13 maintains, “ . . . All things are open and laid bare to the eyes of Him with whom we have to do (italics added).” If God possesses limited but ever-expanding knowledge, Isaiah could not have written that the Lord's understanding is forever “inscrutable” (Isaiah 40:28 NASB).

Similarly, as the prophet Job explains, God “looks to the ends of the earth and sees everything under the heavens” (Job 28:24, italics added). Later, the same book of the Bible reaffirms the Almighty is “perfect in knowledge” (Job 37:16). And in one of scripture’s most powerful passages of praise, the psalmist seems to shout, “Great is our Lord and abundant in strength; his understanding is infinite” (Psalm 147:5, italics added).

The only true God—the God of the Bible—is perfect in every attribute. This has always been so. A God that gains knowledge is simply an idol, or worse, a figment of a false prophet’s imagination.

2. MORMONISM PROCLAIMS A FALSE CHRIST

Countless people say they’re Christians, but few of them believe in and worship the Christ of the Bible (Matthew 7:13, 14, 21–23; Luke 13:23–25). Consequently, anyone not reconciled to the Father through the biblical Jesus won’t receive eternal life (2 Corinthians 5:17–21). Unfortunately, Mormons worship “another Jesus” (2 Corinthians 11:4), a Jesus of their own design. Consider these examples:

Christ's Conception

Brigham Young’s doctrine that “the birth of the Savior was as natural as are the births of our children” was uttered before an 1860 LDS congregation. “It was the result of natural action . . . He . . . was begotten of his father, as we were of our fathers” (Journal of Discourses 8:115).

Echoing this, the First Presidency claimed: “Man, as a spirit, was begotten and born of heavenly parents, and reared to maturity in the eternal mansions of the Father, prior to coming upon the earth in a temporal body to undergo an experience in mortality . . . All men existed in the spirit before any man existed in the flesh, and . . . all who have inhabited the earth since Adam have taken bodies and become souls in like manner” (“The Origin of Man,” Improvement Era, Vol. 13, (November 1909), pp. 75–81, italics added).

Current Mormon church publications, such as the book Gospel Principles, teach that “God the Father became the literal Father of Jesus Christ” (p. 64). And Bruce R. McConkie penned, “[Christ] is the Son of God in the same sense and way that we are the sons of mortal fathers” (The Promised Messiah, p. 468).

But the Bible teaches that Jesus was not conceived as you and I were. Mormons deny New Testament proclamations of Christ's conception into mortality, but biblical doctrine remains true. Bible-believing Christians accept that the Virgin Mary “was found to be with child by the Holy Spirit” (Matthew 1:18), that the Holy Spirit came “upon” Mary, and that God overshadowed her. Consequently, Jesus was called “the Son of God" (Luke 1:35). Contrary to Mormon doctrine, the Bible says nothing about alleged coitus between God and Mary.

Christ's Exalted Position

Differing radically from Christians throughout history, Mormons believe that Christ, whom they say was firstborn of the Father in the spirit and the only begotten in the flesh, became a God in pre-mortal life. Literally for Mormons, Jesus is our elder spirit brother who attained godhood ahead of us.

Fortunately, God's word takes a drastically different and more reverent position. True, Christ is a separate entity from the Father and the Holy Spirit, but Christ is God, not a God (Psalm 2:7–12; John 1:1; 20:28; Acts 20:28; 1 Peter 2:12; Titus 2:13; Hebrews 1:8). As a result, the Bible proclaims that Christ is God “manifest in the flesh” (1 Timothy 3:16 KJV).

Christ's Eternal Nature

The LDS church teaches that Christ obeyed the Mormon gospel in pre-mortal life and was therefore awarded Godhood. What's the truth? Jesus has always been God—and always will be (Hebrews 13:8). Bible believers accept that Christ never earned eternal life, as Mormons claim (Hebrews 5:9 refers to Christ learning and growing during mortality), nor did he become God. As John explains, “In the beginning, the Word [Christ] . . . was God” (John 1:1). Romans 9:5 says Jesus is “the eternally blessed God.” Since Christ is the eternally blessed God, he could not have become God.

3. MORMONISM PROMOTES A FALSE CHURCH

Mormonism’s founder, Joseph Smith, set the stage for the alleged total apostasy in his official account of the First Vision. “I was answered that I must join none of [the existing churches], for they were all wrong,” Smith writes. “And the Personage who addressed me said that all their creeds were an abomination in his sight. [He said] those professors were all corrupt; that: they draw near to me with their lips, but their hearts are far from me, they teach for doctrines the commandments of men, having a form of godliness, but they deny the power thereof” (Pearl of Great Price, Joseph Smith-History 1:19).

A restoration could happen only if there were a complete apostasy from Christ's New Testament church. Part of the good news for Christians—and a sad truth for Mormons—is that a complete falling away never occurred. How do we know? Christ says so.

The Bible confirms that the church, Christ’s worldwide body of believers, would endure forever after its establishment some 2,000 years ago. When teaching his apostles, Christ guaranteed that “the gates of Hades would not overpower” his church (Matthew 16:18). But in direct contradiction to God’s word, Mormonism teaches the gates of Hades did overpower Christ’s church.

Rest assured that “the church of the living God [is] the pillar and support of the truth” (1 Timothy 3:15) and has remained so since its inception. What if the pillar and support were removed? Unsupported, the truth would fall. Fortunately, as Isaiah and Peter write, “The word of our God stands forever.” (Isaiah 40:8; 1 Peter 1:25).

Despite Acts 3:21, Revelation 14:6 and other Mormon proof texts, there's no scriptural justification for a "restoration." Those and other passages do not refer to Joseph Smith or Mormonism. In fact, during David's lifetime, hundreds of years before Christ’s birth, God affirmed, " . . . The Lord surrounds His people From this time forth and forever" (Psalm 125:2, italics added), making a total apostasy anytime afterward impossible. The Apostle Paul clarifies the alleged total apostasy even further. Writing to Ephesian believers some 30 years after Christ’s resurrection, he declared there would be no complete apostasy: "To [God] be glory in the church and in Christ Jesus to all generations forever and ever” (Ephesians 3:21).

Paul’s statement leaves the Mormon church with a dilemma. From A.D. 60–62 onward, "forever and ever," God would receive glory in the church. For such glory to occur to all generations, it must include the Church of Jesus Christ on earth during Paul’s lifetime and extend throughout all eternity. And for God to receive glory in the church throughout eternity, there must be a living, breathing and true church.

4. MORMONISM FEATURES FALSE PROPHETS

Mormons mention prophets frequently. Throughout a Mormon’s experience in the church, “prophet” may well be the most widely used religious term. Indeed, Mormon "prophets" are highly revered. But are Mormon church presidents true prophets? Or are they simply among the many false prophets who will "come to you in sheep's clothing, but inwardly are ravenous wolves" (Matthew 7:15; 24:11, 24)?

The Apostle Peter warned that, as false prophets arose in ancient Israel, deceitful teachers such as Joseph Smith and his successors would arise in proximity to the true body of Christ. This second wave of false prophets, Peter noted, would "secretly introduce destructive heresies, even denying the master who bought them, bringing swift destruction upon themselves" (2 Peter 2:1).

Granted, the gift of prophecy and the existence of prophets in a general sense have populated Christ's church since it began (Acts 11:27; 13:1; 15:32; 1 Corinthians 11:4; 12:10; 14:1). Under the Old Covenant, God called Abraham, Moses, Isaiah and other prophets as watchmen for God’s people (Ezekiel 33:2–9). God has given the spirit of prophecy to believers who are within Christ's New Covenant (Revelation 19:10), but the prophet of God’s people today is Christ himself (Deuteronomy 18:15, 18, 19; Acts 3:22–26).

The Bible teaches that prophets like Moses, Isaiah and Jeremiah became unnecessary after Christ's resurrection. "The Law and the Prophets were proclaimed until John,” Luke 16:16 reads. “Since that time, the good news of the kingdom of God is being preached . . . " This important doctrine was reaffirmed in Hebrews: "God, after He spoke long ago to the fathers in the prophets in many portions and in many ways, in these last days has spoken to us in His Son . . . " (Hebrews 1:1).

5. MORMONISM TEACHES FALSE GRACE

Mormons want it two ways regarding God's grace. They maintain belief in grace—God’s favor to the unworthy—but they also claim personal merit is required to receive the Lord's blessings.

God allegedly (and redundantly) told Joseph Smith, "And we know that justification through the grace of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ is just and true" (Doctrine and Covenants 20:30). In the Book of Mormon, Jacob says “it is only in and through the grace of God that ye are saved" (2 Nephi 10:24).

Some Christians reading Smith’s words might think Mormons believe in the New Testament concept of grace. Not so. In the Doctrine and Covenants, the Lord supposedly explains: “Nevertheless, he that repents and does the commandments of the Lord shall be forgiven” (1:32). Later in the D & C, Smith penned: "There is a law, irrevocably decreed in heaven before the foundations of this world, upon which all blessings are predicated—And when we obtain any blessing from God, it is by obedience to that law upon which it is predicated" (130:20, 21, italics added).

Vainly attempting to reconcile two doctrinal positions regarding God’s grace, the Book of Mormon reveals a classic example of LDS doublespeak: " . . . For we know that it is by grace that we are saved, after all we can do" (2 Nephi 25:23, italics added). One current Mormon apologist even “massages” this teaching, claiming we're saved by grace because God permits us to keep the Mormon laws and ordinances that ensure individual salvation.

Smith claimed the Book of Mormon is “the most correct book of any book on earth, and the keystone of [the Mormon] religion, and a man would get nearer to God by abiding by its precepts, than by any other book” (History of the Church 4:461). It asserts we earn eternal life by trusting in God, keeping his commandments diligently, and by continuing in the faith until the end of our mortal lives (Mosiah 4:6; Alma 12:30–32). The Mormon church’s tenth president, Joseph Fielding Smith, phrases Mormonism’s gospel-of-works doctrine this way: “ . . . In the Celestial Kingdom, we must be worthy in every point, or we fail to receive the blessing . . . Every law must be obeyed, and no member of the church can have a place there unless he is in full accord” (Answers to Gospel Questions 3:26, 27, italics added).

Praise God that the biblical doctrine of grace differs diametrically from Mormonism’s notion of grace plus works. Latter-day Saints admit the Bible includes Ephesians 2:5, 8, 9; Titus 3:5 and other grace-supporting passages, but they stubbornly deny that grace encompasses the total absence of human works (Romans 4:4; 6–12; 9:11; Ephesians 2:9).

The Bible verifies that salvation, commonly known as eternal life, is purely a gift from God, not the result of human effort. This doctrine is present throughout the New Testament. For example, during his mortal ministry, Christ guaranteed that "whoever believes in Him shall not perish, but have eternal life" (John 3:16; also see verse 15). Later, in the same chapter, the Lord elaborated on the doctrine of salvation by grace: "He who believes in the Son has eternal life” (John 3:36). Notice the Savior was speaking in the present tense. Believers apprehend eternal life now. Christ further declared, " . . . He who hears my word and believes Him who sent me, has eternal life, and does not come into judgment, but has passed out of death into life" (John 5:24).

The Apostle Paul, a valiant ambassador of the gospel of grace—the only gospel leading to eternal life—made the true doctrine of grace clear to Timothy. Salvation is "not according to our works," Paul emphasized, "but according to [God's] own purpose and grace which was granted us in Christ Jesus

. . . " (2 Timothy 1:9). Paul told the Romans, " . . . It does not depend on the man who wills or the man who runs, but on God who has mercy" (Romans 9:16). Refining the point further, Paul assured all Christians, "For sin shall not be master over you, for you are not under law but under grace" (Romans 6:14). Notice Paul spoke of law in general and not the Law of Moses specifically. If you "are seeking to be justified by law, you have fallen from grace" (Galatians 5:4).

6. MORMONISM OFFERS FALSE HOPE

There's "hope-so salvation" and "know-so salvation." Ask a Mormon, "If you died now, do you know you would have eternal life with Christ?" The standard response? “I hope so." But thanks to Christ's finished work on the cross, he forgives all sins of those who believe in him (Ephesians 1:7; Colossians 1:14; 2:13). In Micah’s words, he has “cast all [our] sins into the depths of the sea” (Micah 7:19). And because of the perfect righteousness God imputes to those who believe in the biblical Jesus, Christians possess a "know-so" salvation.

Mormonism, which claims to be modern-day Israel, has reverted to an Old Testament approach to eternal life. The Mormon church's third Article of Faith reads, "We believe that through the Atonement of Christ, all mankind may be saved, by obedience to the laws and ordinances of the Gospel (italics added). Perfect obedience to all of God's commandments is mandatory for eternal life in Mormonism. Among Mormon pronouncements emphasizing this impossible constraint, the Lord allegedly told Joseph Smith, "Keep my commandments continually, and a crown of righteousness thou shalt receive. And except thou do this, where I am you cannot come" (Doctrine and Covenants 25:15, italics added). To Mormons, repentance from all their sins means lifelong compliance to every Mormon law and ordinance (Doctrine and Covenants 1:32).

1 Nephi 22:31 offers similar wording of Mormonism's doctrine of salvation by works: " … Wherefore, if ye shall be obedient to the commandments, and endure to the end, ye shall be saved at the last day." Correctly, Mormonism mandates sinlessness in order to live with God in his kingdom (Pearl of Great Price, Moses 6:57). But the Mormon avenue to sinlessness is not what Christ provides by grace (Romans 4:13–25; 2 Corinthians 5:21). Remember Joseph Fielding Smith said Mormons must obey every law and be worthy in every point to receive God’s highest eternal reward. As the Bible attests, however, this is impossible aside from the biblical doctrine of grace.

Many Bible verses confirm that "all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God" (Romans 3:23). For instance, Solomon, one of Israel's mightiest prophets, confirms "there is no man who does not sin" (1 Kings 8:46). Solomon further writes, "Indeed, there is not a righteous man on earth who continually does good and who never sins" (Ecclesiastes 7:20). And the Apostle John, personally tutored by Christ, writes, "If we say that we have not sinned, we make Him a liar and His word is not in us" (1 John 1:10).

It follows, then, even Thomas S. Monson, current Mormon church president, hasn’t met the LDS standard of personal righteousness. He, all his associates and all his predecessors are included in the Apostle James’s observation that “we all stumble in many ways" (James 3:2). Since Mormonism's revered "prophet, seer and revelator" falls short regarding personal righteousness, imagine how often each everyday Mormon violates God's word.

Therefore, a Mormon’s only true hope is to reject all manmade systems of salvation and confess his sins to the God of the Bible. Then the Lord will "forgive our sins and . . . cleanse us from all unrighteousness" (1 John 1:8). God's plan is for us to come to Jesus Christ, not to a church. We’re added to Christ’s church when we receive him as Lord and Savior (Acts 2:41, 47; 5:14). He gives eternal life as a gift, not as something earned (John 5:24, 40; Romans 5:15–21). Eternal life is accomplished purely by grace through faith, not by works (Ephesians 2:8, 9) because "whatever is not from faith is sin" (Romans 14:23).

7. MORMONISM RELIES ON FALSE SCRIPTURE

Much of Mormonism rests upon extra-biblical doctrine. Since the LDS church began in 1830, it has downplayed the Bible. For example, Mormonism's Eighth Article of Faith partially reads, "We believe the Bible to be the word of God as far as it is translated correctly . . . " However, after nearly 200 years, Mormon “prophets” have yet to specify all the biblical words that are translated correctly.

Early in the Book of Mormon, Smith asserted the Bible was corrupted soon after its compilation. He claimed "many parts which are plain and most precious" were removed from the Bible to "pervert the right ways of the Lord," harden people's hearts and blind their spiritual perceptions (1 Nephi 13:26–29). Consequently, due to the Bible's purported insufficiency, the Book of Mormon and other LDS Standard Works supposedly provide the "fulness of [the] everlasting gospel" (Doctrine and Covenants 27:5; 66:2).

But are Mormon “scriptures” from God? The Book of Mormon is allegedly “another testament of Jesus Christ.” But the Bible isn't simply one testament of the Savior. All of its 66 books preach, teach and testify of him in some way. Even when we consider only the New Testament as evidence of Christ's divine mission and teaching, we have 27 books of scripture certifying his Lordship and Godhood.

Anyone can claim to receive revelation.And most cultists urge their followers to rely on their hearts, not scripture, to verify truth. Unfortunately, the heart is often deceitful and “desperately sick” (Jeremiah 17:9), evil and insane (Ecclesiastes 8:11; 9:3). “He who trusts in his own heart is a fool” (Proverbs 28:26).

The Bible is sufficient scripture. Writing nearly 2,000 years ago, Peter affirmed that God's "divine power has granted to us everything pertaining to life and godliness, through the true knowledge of Him who called us by His own glory and excellence" (2 Peter 1:3). Similarly, Paul assured Ephesian believers, " . . . I did not shrink from declaring to you anything that was profitable . . . " (Acts 20:20). Several verses later, Paul added, "For I have not shunned to declare unto you all the counsel of God" (Acts 20:27, KJV).

WHAT NOW?

There are many solid reasons to leave the Mormon church, receive the biblical Jesus and fellowship with his true body of believers. Each reason above proves Mormonism is not Christ’s church. But when all seven reasons are combined, the biblical evidence against Mormonism is devastating.

The Apostle John best summarized what you need to do now. " . . . As many as received [the biblical Jesus], to them He gave the right to become children of God, even to those who believe on His name  . . . " (John 1:12). He also wrote, “These things I have written to you who believe in the name of the Son of God, so that you may know that you have eternal life” (1 John 5:13).

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LEAVING MORMONISM?

The authors of “Seven Reasons to Leave the Mormon Church” are eager to help you formally leave the LDS church and begin a new life with the Christ of the Bible. Both men are committed to biblical principles of “not [being] quarrelsome, but [remaining] kind to all, able to teach, patient when wronged, with gentleness correcting those who are in opposition, if perhaps God may grant them repentance leading to the knowledge of the truth”

(2 Timothy 2:24, 25).

Loren Franck, president and executive director of Global Christian Outreach, PO Box 5761, Playa del Rey, CA 90296-5761; loren@gco4lds.org.

J. Dawn Pratt, Global Christian Outreach vice president and research director, PO Box 5761, Playa del Rey, CA 90296-5761; dawn@gco4lds.org.

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Colossians 1:19, 20

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2. Did Elijah give sealing power to Joseph Smith? The answer is here.

3. What are the seven best biblical reasons to leave Mormonism? Click here to find out.

4. Was Christ the Father’s first begotten Son in the preexistence? The truth may surprise you.

5. What’s on our readers’ minds concerning Christ, his gospel and the false teachings of Mormonism? Our e-mails and letters column tells you.