You may have an occasion to discuss the Mormon religion with some of your friends or with two young men who are canvassing the street where you live and looking for someone to teach. What do you know about this religion?
There never was a religious group called the Mormons prior to the nineteenth century. It was Joseph Smith who claimed to have found golden plates which had been buried by a man name Mormon. There is no evidence such a man ever lived, except in the book Joseph Smith published. The “fable” that is the basis of Mormonism is that on two occasions men left the Bible lands and sailed to America. The first group left from the tower of Babel where God confused the languages and according to one of the books, Ether, in the book of Mormon, came to America to the Promised Land. A second group came to America about the time of the Babylonian captivity of the Jews. This second group became much larger, and centuries later, Jesus came to America during the forty days he was on the earth after His resurrection and before His ascension. He established the church, complete with apostles. These events were all recorded, with one of the last records being made by Mormon, whose son buried the “other Bible” given in America in Palmyra, New York. In 1830, Joseph Smith got these writings and translated them, and they became the book of Mormon.
Joseph Smith created a following, and this was the beginning of Mormonism. The movement was persecuted, and Smith led his followers as they fled from New York to Kirkland, Ohio in 1831, with some of the group moving to Independence, Missouri. In 1837, Joseph and many others were driven from Ohio and went to Missouri. Two years later, because of persecution, Smith moved to Nauvoo, Illinois, where he was killed in 1844. Within two years, the new leader, Brigham Young, led the exodus of most of the Mormons to Utah.
Mormonism has a very evangelistic spirit and has spread into many nations. It is important to know the historical background of this movement before examining its teaching. It is remarkable how strange the religious beliefs are and how so many of them contradict what the Bible plainly says.
In next week’s article, we will examine just a few of the contradictions found in the Book of Mormon and the teachings of the Bible. It is impossible for both of these books to be right. God, who cannot lie, cannot be the author of both books. (To be continued)