Some LDS claim that we need to be lead by a prophet of God, we cannot just rely on the Bible and/or the Book of Mormon alone. To test this let us look at some of the fruits of the Mormon prophets. How good a job have they done?
1). They practice polygamy from about 1832 to after 1890 while the 1835 D&C 101:4 (which was Scripture until 1876), the Bible (Timothy 3:1-13) and the Book of Mormon (Jacob 1:15, 2:24; Mosiah 11:2; Ether 10:5) condemned the practice.
2). They publicly lied about the practice of polygamy prior to its public announcement in 1852 and then lied about the practice still going on after the 1890 manifesto.
3). * Brigham Young taught "Blood Atonement" and it was practiced under his rule.
4). * Brigham Young taught Adam-God doctrine.
5). * The Mormon priesthood was withheld from men with African Negro blood until this was reversed in 1978.
6). * A major shift in the teachings about the attributes of God as signaled by Joseph Smith's King Follet Discourse at the church's April 1844 general conference, "We have imagined and supposed that God was God from all eternity. I will refute that idea and take away the veil, so that you may see.".... "....you have got to learn how to be Gods yourselves, and to be kings and priests to God, the same as all Gods have done before you....." (Teachings of the Prophet Joseph Smith, pages 345-346). This new teaching by Joseph Smith contradicts D&C 20:17, 39:1; Moroni 7:22, 8:18; Mormon 9:9, 19; 2 Nephi 29:9; 1 Nephi 10:18; Mosiah 3;5, 8; Moses 1:3-6; Ps 90:2, 93:2, 103:17; Deut 33:27; Malachi 3:6; Heb 13:8; Rev 1:8; Is 43:10, 44:6, 8, 24 .
7). * The false prophecies of Joseph Smith as found in D&C 87:2; 114:1-2; 84:4-5, 94-98.
8). The hundreds of changes that have been made to Mormon Scripture
verses after they were first published as Scripture. Examples are:
a) Book of Mormon:
- "the Son of" added to: 1Nep 11:18, 18, 32; 13:40.
- "Benjamin" changed to "Mosiah": Mosiah
21:28; Ether 4:1.
- "directors" changed to "interpreters": Alma 37:21, 24.
- "white" changed to "pure": 2 Nep 30:6.
- "out of the waters of baptism" inserted into 1 Nephi 20:1
b) Doctrine & Covenants:
- Book of Commandments Chapt. 6:1-3 compared to D&C 7.
- Book of Commandments Chapt. 4:2 compared to D&C 5:4.
- Book of Commandments Chapt. 24:37-46 compared to D&C 20:49-68.
- Book of Commandments Chapt. 26:1-8 compared to D&C 25:1-9.
- Book of Commandments Chapt. 28:1-7 compared to D&C 27:1-14.
- Book of Commandments Chapt. 44:23-29, 48-57 compared to D&C 42:24-36,
62-73.
- The removal of the Lectures on Faith starting with the 1921 D&C.
They were first published in the 1835 D&C. The Preface of the 1835
D&C says the following about these lectures, "...that it contains in
short, the leading items of the religion which we have professed to believe.
"The first part of the book will be found to contain a series
of Lectures as delivered before a Theological class in this place, and
in consequence of their embracing the important doctrine of salvation,
we have arranged them in the following work." This Preface was signed by
Joseph Smith Jr., Oliver Cowdery, Sidney Rigdon and F. G. Williams.
9). The changes made to the temple endowment ceremony in 1990 without common consent (D&C 28:13, 132:8). This ceremony was allegedly a revelation from God according to Apostle John Taylor and President and Prophet Ezra Taft Benson (Journal of Discourses 23:325; Teachings of Ezra Taft Benson, page 250-251).
10). The change to the use of water in place of wine (D&C 27:2-4) in the communion service four months after God had first told them to use wine (D&C 20:75, 77, 79).
These are just some of the many examples of the great and wonderful fruits of Mormon prophets.
* Those items above with a * have articles on the main web page.
John Farkas
Berean Christian Ministries; P.O. Box 1091; Webster, NY 14580
E-mail: bcmmin@frontiernet.net
Web page: http://www.frontiernet.net/~bcmmin
art/frutmorm 1-31-98;