Can any Mormons clear up these commonly used issues against Mormonism?

Question

Now I'm not saying whether these are right or wrong, I just want to hear what Mormons have to say about these things.

1. Mormons don't believe in Christ or atleast deny his divinity
2. Rev 22:19 means Mormons have added to the Bible.
3. Mormons practice polygamy
4. Mormons believe we are saved by works
5. They don't study or believe in the Bible
6. Mormons are racist, you only let whites in your church.

Please answer with evidence not assumptions and extremely biased stuff thanks.

lilmiskato asked this (sorry I didn't catch it till later)

7. Mormons believe native americans are the lost tribe of israel- true?

follow up questions link: http://answers.yahoo.com/question/index?qid=20070610161230AAPwZAe&pa=FYd1D2bwHTHwLLtjFe06RHYtn3DEKYlJZHjAd72g9y.SMw--&paid=asked&msgr_status=

Answer 1

Well, while there have been some good answers, I'll give this a shot:

1. There's the Church's official name, as well as the First Article of Faith ("We believe in God, the Eternal Father, and in His Son Jesus Christ, and in the Holy Ghost.").

2. Those who quote the Revelation scripture tend to ignore Deuteronemy 4:2, which says very much the same thing (and they only indicate that MAN shall not add on to or take away from the words of God, and say nothing about what God can or can't do). You also have to remember both verses were written well before the Bible as we know it was even compiled (and the odd thing is, not all Christian denominations have exactly the same books in the New Testament, yet no one levels that accusation at any of them).

3. At one time, Mormons did practice limited poligamy (what some don't realize is that during the time the Church did so, members who desired to practice poligamy actually had to have permission from Church leadership to even do so!). But it hasn't been practiced for well over a century, and was in general disuse by the time of the release of what became known as Official Declaration #1 (which formally ended the practice).

4. Mormons believe that we are saved by grace after all that we can do (works). Take a look at the New Testament - the topic of being saved came up several times in which the Lord was involved in te disccussion, and never once is He recorded as saying that the only thing needed to be saved is believing; in fact, He never ONCE said that at all! (He always used examples that indicated action was neccessary, like with the parable of the Good Samaritan.) And as James pointed out, even the Devil believes in God, yet most (if not all) Christians would agree that Satan certainly isn't getting saved!

5. Mormons do believe in the King James Version of the Bible, as one of the four standard works (as indicated in several places throughout the Articles of Faith, most directly in #7), and is a regular topic of reference and discution in church (the Old and New Testaments each get one year in 4 year devoted to study in Sunday School on a rotational basis, with the Book of Mormon and Doctrine & Covenants/Church history filling out the other two years in the rotation).

7. At one time blacks were not allowed to hold the priesthood (and thus couldn't obtain temple ordinances, which requires the men to hold the priesthood first), but members of all ethnicities have always been allowed to be baptised into the Church. Why this was the case has not ever been formally stated, though there are several theories, even among Church members. One of the most popular theories in the Church is that in the war in heaven between Lucifer and his followers and God and His followers, those who became of African descent were essentially the fence sitters; while they technically kept their first estate by not siding with Satan (and thus gaining the right to enter the second estate - mortality), there would have been some sort of punishment for not directly siding with God right from the start (and that the denying of the priesthood and accompanying blessings until recently was that punishment).

The Church, interestingly enough, has always maintained an anti-slavery stance, which did bring them some persecution in the South (Missouri especially) from pro-slavery people afraid that too big a Mormon voting block in their state would ban slavery in that state. People who try to claim that the Mormon Church and all its members are racist not only ignore that, but also ignore the fact that many Southern slave owners were in fact people who professed to be Christian! (And if being a slave owner isn't racism personified, I don't know what is!)

7. Mormons believe that Native Americans are a branch of Israel, though we don't believe that they constitute the entire lost tribes of Israel (of which there were 10 that were lost). Lehi was listed in the Book of Mormon as being a descendent of Israel's son Joseph (I've heard that some have said Lehi was specifically descended from Manassah, while Ishmael, whose family went along with Lehi to the promised land and whose daughters married Lehi's sons, was descended from Ephriam).

Answer 2

1. Mormons don't believe in Christ or atleast deny his divinity

We believe in the Father, Son and Holy Ghost. Jesus Christ gave his life for all sinners by his atonement.


2. Rev 22:19 means Mormons have added to the Bible.

No That's only the Book of Revelation was not to be added or taken away from...



3. Mormons practice polygamy


Banned in 1890

4. Mormons believe we are saved by works

Most of Christianity believe works and faith go together...Catholics, Mormons and Eastern Orthodox...
Only protestants believe in grace alone.
Mormons believe in Grace we are saved after all we can do

5. They don't study or believe in the Bible

We study the Old Testament and New Testament.

6. Mormons are racist, you only let whites in your church.

Actually soon they will be more latinos than whites in the church. The church never has been racist, never owned slaves and has to preach the gospel to all kindred, tongues and people. They never barred anybody from joining the church.

Answer 3

I will help clear these things up for you.

1) I don't know where you got that! We 100% believe in Jesus Christ and know that he died for our sins and that through his name we can be saved. We don't deny his divinity either; we acknowledge him as the Bible does, that he is the Son of God.
2) First off, the books of the Bible are not in chronological order and John wrote the book of Revelations before he wrote the other books, so that would mean a lot of the Bible is not the word of God and that he added to it.
3) No we do not! That is an outlawed practice. If you are part of it, you are excommunicated. If you hear of anyone who does and claims to be LDS, they are a shootoff and not part of the real LDS church.
4) That is partly true but not the whole truth. We believe that we are saved by the grace of Christ after all we can do. This means that we have to have faith in Christ but also do the works. This is not all however. We realize that no matter how many works we do we all come short of the glory of God. It is only through the Grace that Christ extends us through his atonement that we can be saved, but we must do all that we can in order to be eligible to receive it. It's not just works that applies: it is faith, works, and grace.
5) We read the Bible every week at Church! Our study topic this year in Sunday School is the New Testament. Every member of the Church read the KJV version of the Bible and we believe it to be the word of God.
6) We are not racist. There are blacks in my ward. People twist this from the scripture in the Book of Mormon that talks about the curse. We take this as a church to mean a metaphorical blackness (if you sin you are dirty, etc.). We respect blacks and we have members of different nationalities all over the world. There are more foreign members now than in the United States. Whoever you are and whatever nationality you can have everything that white members have, there is no racial segregation. I'm not just saying this, I have seen members of the church who are black and many other races.

I hope this clears things up for you.

Answer 4

I am a Mormon, and I will give you a brief answer to each question.

1. We certainly do believe in Christ. He is the Head of our Church and the Center of our lives. He is fully divine.
2. Rev 22:19 means don't add to the Book of Revelation, not the whole Bible. The Bible hadn't been compiled when John wrote that.
3. Mormons don't practice polygamy anymore. Any church member who does is excommunicated.
4. We believe that we are saved by the Grace of Jesus Christ, which results from his Atonement. This is what gives us salvation. We also believe that we will be judged and rewarded according to our works, as the Bible teaches (Rev. 20:12-13).
5. We do study and believe in the Bible, more than most people. The Church as a whole is studying the New Testament this year in its Sunday School curriculum.
6. Africa is one of the places where the Church is growing the fastest (and I'm not talking about the whites in Africa). From its very beginning, the church always allowed people of all races to join the Church.

Answer 5

First of all, I am a Mormon, so you can trust these answers.

1. We definitely do believe in Christ. Our church is called the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints. Of course we believe in him!

2. I am not sure what you mean by that question.

3. No, Mormons do not practice polygamy. They stopped that a LONG time ago.

4. I am not sure what you mean by this question either, sorry!

5. Yes, we do study AND believe in the Bible. We use the King James version.

6. No, of course not! We are definitely not racist! We have many african american, chineese, asian, etc. in our church.

I am sorry I was not able to answer 2 of these questions, I did not understand what you meant. I hope this helps!

Answer 6

1. We are The Church of JESUS CHRIST of Latter-day Saints. No, we do not deny His diety or His divinity. Read the Bible and the Book of Mormon if you don't believe me.

2. No, GOD gave us our scriptures; the Bible, the Book of Mormon, the Doctrine & Covenants and the Pearl of Great Price. Revelation 22:18, 19 are talking about man not adding to the book of Revelation. When John wrote his revelation, he had no idea that it would be in back of THE BIBLE, since there was no such thing as THE BIBLE back then. So, you can't write about something that doesn't exist, that you don't know WILL exist far into theh future.

3. Not at this time.

4. No, we are saved by grace and judged on our works. As James said, faith without works is dead.

5. We not only believe it to be the word of God, as far as it is translated correctly, we even take two years to study in in Sunday School, as opposed to one year for the others.

6. Ask that of all the blacks, Asians, Pacific Islanders, and all the other minorities. We were sending missionaries into the Pacific Islands in the 19th century, and it wasn't to convert other missionaries. The church was very well received by Polynesians.

Answer 7

I'm not Mormon, but I've read the Book of Mormon and I know a little about their religion:

1. Mormons *DO* believe in Christ. In fact, the whole point of their religion is that modern day Christians have skewed from the original teachings of Christ.

2. Rev 22:19 says that anyone who takes AWAY from the prophecy gets a bad rap, not adds to it.

3. Some Mormons practice and condone polygamy.

4. Mormons believe they are saved through Christ, just like all Christians.

5. They study the Bible more than most vanilla Christians, and they certainly believe in it.

6. Mormons are no more or less racist than any other Christian.

The answers above are based on my readings of the Book of Mormon, my friendship with several Mormons, and my ability to get information from sources other than Yahoo! Answers.

Answer 8

1. The real name of our church is: The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints. We believe that Jesus Christ is the only begotten of the Father and is the Savior and Redeemer of mankind.
2. Rev 22:19 actually refers to the book of Revelations... so that is NOT valid.
3. No. we do not. Any member who does is ex communicated.
4. No. We believe that we can only be saved through the the grace of the Savior. But we do believe faith without works is dead.
5. We study the KJV.
6. No. The first counclilor in my bishopric is from Ghana and yes he's black... we have more members outside the US than in and we invite all cultures and nationalities to join.

thanks have a great day! :)

Answer 9

1) The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints thats the name of the church. we do not deny his divinity we believe him to be the son of our Heavenly Father and that he was endowed with all that Heavenly Father had as he created the earth and was the God of Abraham, Isacc, and Israel. Then he was born to Mary and reigned as king of the Jews. Very interesting that rather than being a politcally great person he healed people and taught the greater law.

2) This verse refers to the Book of Revelation, not the Bible.

3) No we dont, those are groups of apostate 'mormons'. Read Official Decleration 1 in the end of the Docrine and Covenents where President Wilford Woodruff proclaims the end of the law of plural marriages.
By the way the only reason LDS saints ever practiced this law was because of the persecutions they faced which killed off alot of the male population, the women couldn't survive on there own in the society of those times so the men took them in to support them. Why is it not viewed as strange that almoast all of the old testemant prophets practiced this sam law?

4) Actually this isn't true, we believe we are saved by Grace. Since our savior Jesus Christ died for our sins we will be ressurected, everyone of us that kept our first estate and came to this Earth. We believe that by the way you live your life (your works) you will either be damned or exhalted. If you keep the higher law you will be exhalted to live in the presence of god, if you don't you will be damned to a lower state.
By the way, if you believe the bible than you must believe the Book of James. Read James 2:18-26.

5) I know the Bible better than most 18 year olds, thank you very much. We go in cycles, we study the Old Testament, New Testament, Book of Mormon, and Docrine and Covenants/ Church History. Usually we study one of these for a year then switch to the next one. Thats how we do it in Sunday School and in seminary... Article of Faith #8- We believe the Bible to be the Word of God as far as it is translated correctly, we also Book of Mormon to be the Word of God.

6) Read Official Decleration 2 where President Spencer W. Kimball opens the doors for those of African decent to receive the priesthood. Before that they had already been accepted into the church along with Asian and Hispanics. This is a world wide church, there are more people in the church living outside of the US than there are in it, most of which are in South America. We have over 300 missions going to almoast every nation with missionaries speaking almoast every language.

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A good quote I've heard:
"If you want to buy a Ford and you want to know more about their trucks, you don't go to a Chevy dealer you go to a Ford dealer. All that the Chevy dealer will tell you is all that is wrong with the Ford."

Study things published by the church. Know that there is a difference between the church and those that have apostasized from it. And don't make assumptions as you are accusing us of doing.

Answer 10

1.Yes we believe in Christ he is our Savior and Gods son.
2.We did not add we have another testament to Christ, It is a separate book.
3. No only the sects broken away do.
4. We believe we are saved by Grace and works. Jesus had to come to suffer and die for our sins. But in respect to him we believe we need to be the best we can. We will be judged on how we lived our life.
5.We do study and believe in the bible. We always have and we have been taught to study and read it just as much as we do The Book of Mormon.
6. No all races are welcome to join the church. I know several who are of other ethnic groups.
I am a member and have grown up my whole life in the church.
Thanks for asking its refreshing to hear someone ask about the misconceptions rather then just believing them.