LDS Principles of Faith

This is the second writing on Mormon beliefs. I wrote about this a couple of weeks ago and promised that I would publish my thoughts about their doctrine.

The LDS church follows 13 basic principles. These are taken directly from their web page. (http://mormon.org/articles-of-faith/ )

“(The principals) enhance (their) understanding of certain doctrines and help (them) commit to living them. They invite further thought. And they’re a good tool for explaining (their) beliefs to people unfamiliar with them.”

So let's take a look at what they believe:

(My thoughts and rebuttal will be in bold parenthetically.)

1. We believe in God, the Eternal Father, and in His Son, Jesus Christ, and in the Holy Ghost. (so far, so good.)
   
   
2. We believe that men will be punished for their own sins, and not for Adam’s transgression. (not so much. “Adam sinned, and that sin brought death into the world. Now everyone has sinned, and so everyone must die.” Romans 5:12)
3. We believe that through the Atonement of Christ, all mankind may be saved, by obedience to the laws and ordinances of the Gospel. (Thankfully not true. I, for one, cannot keep the law. No one can. It is not by “obedience to the law” that saves us. “for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God, and all are justified freely by his grace through the redemption that came by Christ Jesus.” Romans 3: 23-24)
4. We believe that the first principles and ordinances of the Gospel are: first, Faith in the Lord Jesus Christ; second, Repentance; third, Baptism by immersion for the remission of sins; fourth, Laying on of hands for the gift of the Holy Ghost. (Yes, we must believe in Jesus. Yes, we all must repent. Yes, we are called to be baptized. But as far as laying of hands, I'm not so sure. Receiving the Holy Ghost is definitely a gift but I am pretty sure that the laying of hands is not necessary. Mary never had anyone lay hands on her and she was filled with the Holy Sprint, literally. And there are many more examples of a person filled with the Holy Spirit and yet not had hands laid upon.)
5. We believe that a man must be called of God, by prophecy, and by the laying on of hands by those who are in authority, to preach the Gospel and administer in the ordinances thereof. (Well, one must unquestionably be called by God to become a “man of the cloth.” However, we are all called to preach the Gospel. “(Jesus) said to them, “Go into all the world and preach the gospel to all creation.”Mark 16:15...no laying of hands required. )
6. We believe in the same organization that existed in the Primitive Church, namely, apostles, prophets, pastors, teachers, evangelists, and so forth. (So do Christians. “So Christ himself gave the apostles, the prophets, the evangelists, the pastors and teachers, to equip his people for works of service, so that the body of Christ may be built up .” Eph 4:11-12)
7. We believe in the gift of tongues, prophecy, revelation, visions, healing, interpretation of tongues, and so forth. (Christians believe in receiving gifts of the spirit also. They are found in 1 Corinthians 12: 7-11)
8. We believe the Bible to be the word of God as far as it is translated correctly; we also believe the Book of Mormon to be the word of God. (half true. The Bible is The Word of God. Unfortunately, if you want a correct translation you need to learn Hebrew and Greek—as that would be the only true translation. I cannot confirm or deny that The Book of Mormon is God-breathed or not. But I am just going to guess it is not or it would have been canonized with the other 66 books.)
9. We believe all that God has revealed, all that He does now reveal, and we believe that He will yet reveal many great and important things pertaining to the Kingdom of God. (We believe this also.)
10. We believe in the literal gathering of Israel and in the restoration of the Ten Tribes; that Zion (the New Jerusalem) will be built upon the American continent; that Christ will reign personally upon the earth; and, that the earth will be renewed and receive its paradisiacal glory. (Most of the book of Revelation is still debated, but I am very curious to know how they figured out that Zion will be built in America. To my recollection the United States is never mentioned in the Bible.)
11. We claim the privilege of worshiping Almighty God according to the dictates of our own conscience, and allow all men the same privilege, let them worship how, where, or what they may. (Finally we agree—sort of! We have the privilege of worshiping God and allowing others to worship Him how and where they want but we need to be very careful with the 'what they may” part. We are to only worship God and Him alone.)
12. We believe in being subject to kings, presidents, rulers, and magistrates, in obeying, honoring, and sustaining the law. (Yes. “Let every person be subject to the governing authorities. For there is no authority except from God, and those that exist have been instituted by God.” Romans 13:1)

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13. We believe in being honest, true, chaste, benevolent, virtuous, and in doing good to all men; indeed, we may say that we follow the admonition of Paul-We believe all things, we hope all things, we have endured many things, and hope to be able to endure all things. If there is anything virtuous, lovely, or of good report or praiseworthy, we seek after these things. (The actual quote is: “Finally, brothers and sisters, whatever is true, whatever is noble, whatever is right, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is admirable—if anything is excellent or praiseworthy—think about such things.” Philippians 4:8 So, I will agree that these are things we strive to live up to also.)

I find it ironic that within their 13 statements of faith there really is no straight forward description of how they will make it to heaven. Let me make it clear once and for all: Everyone has sinned--no matter how “good” you think you have been or how much your “good deeds” out weight your “bad deeds”. There is only one way to heaven folks!

If you declare with your mouth, “Jesus is Lord,” and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved. Romans 10:9(NIV)