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Please download and circulate this petition:
"1. Now concerning the things whereof ye wrote unto me: It is good for a man not to touch a woman. "2. Nevertheless, to avoid fornication, let every man have his own wife, and let every woman have her own husband. ... "7. For I would that all men were even as I myself. But every man hath his proper gift of God, one after this manner, and another after that. "8. I say therefore to the unmarried and widows, It is good for them if they abide even as I. "9. But if they cannot contain, let them marry; for it is better to marry than to burn." 1 Corinthians 7:1-2, 7-9
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My Visit With Two Mormon Missionaries Dr. Dean Helland
On Saturday, March 11, 2006, at about 11:00 in the morning, there was a knock at my door, and when I opened it, there were two Mormon missionaries on my doorstep. I was overjoyed to see that I was going to have the opportunity to share with these two young men, so I opened the door wide and invited them into my living room, sat them on one couch and myself on another, and asked them to proceed with whatever they had to say.
Elder White and Elder Smith asked if we could start with prayer. I said, “Of course!”
While Elder White crossed his arms in the typical Mormon prayer posture, I was surprised to note that Elder Smith did not. It was a short, but appropriate prayer, followed by Elder White’s declaration that they were there to declare to me the Gospel of Jesus Christ, how our Heavenly Father loved us, and how important our families are. He asked about my own religious affiliation, and I told him that I was a born-again Christian, a member of Evangelistic Temple in Tulsa, Oklahoma, which was of the Pentecostal Holiness denomination.
He said that he was sure that we agreed on the love of our Heavenly Father, how He had sent his Son, Jesus Christ, to earth to die for our sins and the Holy Spirit, who would lead us and be with us throughout our life here on earth. I said that I could agree with him except for the sexual implications that Mormons teach concerning the meaning of the term “Heavenly Father.”
“How do you think that God did the creation, then?” he queried.
“By the power of His Word,” I replied.1
This set him aback somewhat, but I continued. The Moslems accuse Christians of believing that God the Father had a sexual relationship with Mary, the mother of Jesus. Of course, that is nonsense, but Joseph Smith, according to his neighbors, was a great admirer of the Koran before he ever got around to producing the Book of Mormon. And Joseph Smith picked up on many things from Islam when he got around to starting his new religion, Mormonism.2
“I have heard somewhere about it being said that God, our Heavenly Father, had sex with Mary,” he said, seeming somewhat scandalized.
“Yes,” I continued. “And that is what Brigham Young taught; that “Elohim” came to earth and had sexual relations with Mary to produce an earthly body for Jesus here on earth.”3
The young man proceeded to talk about the importance of prophets. He said that Adam himself was a prophet, that God has spoken to mankind throughout the history of the world, that the Old Testament is full of prophets. He read Amos 3:7, “Surely the Lord God will do nothing, but he revealeth his secret unto his servants the prophets.” Then he told how God has put prophets in the Church today to lead the church and to speak to God’s people. 1 Hebrews 11:3, “Through faith we understand that the worlds were framed by the word of God, so that things which are seen were not made of things which do appear.” Genesis, chapter 1, speaking of the creation, the Bible says time after time, “And God said, Let there be … light, a firmament , dry land, earth, grass, trees, lights, creatures,” etc., etc. 2 R. C. Evans, Forty Years in the Mormon Church—Why I Left It (1920, rpt., Independence, MO: Ex-RLDS for Jesus, n.d.), 32. 3 The official position of the Mormon Church; Journal of Discourses, vol. 8, page 115, 211. “I agree,” I said, “that God has put prophets in the Church, for in the Book of Acts there were prophets in the Church.4 However, they clearly were not the heads of the Church. In fact, in 1 Corinthians 12:28, it says, “And God hath set some in the church, first apostles, secondarily prophets, thirdly teachers, after that miracles,” etc.
“Yes,” said elder White. “I was just reading that the other day. But I think you will agree that God gave Peter a special place in the Church. In Matthew 16:18, Jesus said to him, ‘thou art Peter, and upon this rock I will build my church.’” And in verse 19 he said to Peter, “I will give unto thee the keys of the kingdom of heaven: and whatsoever thou shalt bind on earth shall be bound in heaven: and whatsoever thou shalt loose on earth shall be loosed in heaven.”
“That’s right!” I said, “Peter preached the first sermon to the Jews on the day of Pentecost, and at the house of Cornelius, he preached the first sermon to the Gentiles. He certainly did have the keys to the kingdom! However, you have to read the entire text to get the meaning. You are getting the same meaning out of those verses that the Roman Catholic Church does when they talk about Peter being the first Pope!”
If you look at the entire passage, you will see that Jesus asked the question: “Who do men say that I the Son of man am?” After some speculative answers, Jesus asked: “But whom say ye that I am?” It continues:
16. And Simon Peter answered and said, Thou art the Christ, the Son of the living God. And Jesus answered and said unto him, Blessed art thou, Simon Barjona: for flesh and blood hath not revealed it unto thee, but my Father which is in heaven. 18. And I say also unto thee, that thou art Peter, and upon this rock I will build my church; and the gates of hell shall not prevail against it.” (Matthew 16:13-18)
I continued, “Jesus Christ himself is the chief cornerstone of the Church. The teachings and beliefs of the apostles serve as the foundation of the Church. Those teachings and beliefs are contained in the New Testament. Jesus used Peter’s name, Petros, which means in Greek “a piece of rock” to illustrate the petra, or “massive rock” that the Church is built on. That massive rock is the revelation from God that Jesus Christ is truly God and was sent from God for the salvation of the world! It has relational, not sexual, connotations! And it is faith like Peter’s, the divine revelation of who Christ is, that enables people to enter the kingdom of God!
“Yes, one must have revelation from God,” said elder White. “Then you agree that there are apostles.”
“Yes, I agree that the apostles laid the foundation of the Church,” I said. Some of the books of the New Testament were written by the apostles. The others were written by men whose ministries and teachings were endorsed by them as valid, and that is why we accept the New Testament today as the Word of God. And I believe there is apostolic ministry today, but not on the same level as that of the original twelve apostles. The ministry of the twelve apostles was very unique, though. They were eye-witnesses to the earthly ministry of Christ.”
“According to Acts 1,” I continued, “in order to replace Judas Iscariot who fell from his position of apostle, the other apostles said his replacement would have to be someone who had witnessed the ministry of Jesus Christ from the time of his baptism by John the Baptist until _____________________________________ 4 Prophets identified in the Book of Acts include Agabus (11:27-28, 21:10-11) and the daughters of Philip the evangelist (21:8-9). the time he ascended into heaven after his resurrection. (Acts 1:21-22) Even the Apostle Paul could not fulfill that requirement! And in Revelation 21:14, we learn that the names of those twelve apostles are written on the twelve foundations of the New Jerusalem!”
“So you see,” I said, “the twelve apostles who accompanied Jesus did accomplish their mission. They laid the foundation for the Church and left us with a bona fide inspired guide which is the New Testament.”
“Yes, the apostles of the lamb were very special,” elder White continued. “But the day came that the apostles were rejected by men. Jesus said to them, ‘the time cometh, that whosoever killeth you will think that he doeth God service.’ (John 16:2) So the time came when the apostles were rejected and were killed, and the Church disappeared from the face of the earth. Then the world entered a period of darkness known as the Dark Ages. It was not until 1820 that the Church was restored to the earth through Joseph Smith.”
“Wait a minute,” I retorted. “Jesus said ‘upon this rock I will build my church; and the gates of hell shall not prevail against it.’ Do you mean that after the death of the apostles, no one had a right relationship with God until the time of Joseph Smith? Then do you think that for all those years the gates of hell prevailed against the Church? That does not agree with what Jesus said in the Bible! You need to read Fox’s Book of Martyrs.
“Well, let’s go on,” said Elder White. “I’ll let my partner take it from here.”
At this point, Elder Smith quoted from memory the story told by Joseph Smith of how he saw a light that descended on him while he was praying in the woods and two identical personages appeared. The one pointed to the other and declared him to be his son, thus Joseph Smith saw both the Father and the Son.
“But that is impossible!” I cried. “The Bible is very clear that the Father is a spirit, is invisible and has never been seen by anybody!”5
“But Moses saw God!” he said.
“Moses was only permitted to see God’s back parts as He passed by,” I pointed out.6 If that is all He could show to Moses, he certainly would not appear in full view to Joseph Smith! I think that it was actually Jesus Christ in his pre-existent state that made those Old Testament appearances anyway. That is the only thing that makes sense when we consider the Father’s being invisible and not ever having been seen by man at any time as taught clearly in the New Testament.”
At this point, Elder Smith took on a starry, glassy-eyed look and began giving his testimony about Joseph Smith’s being a true prophet of God and the Book of Mormon having being translated by the power of God.
“How could the Book of Mormon be translated by the power of God when the Mormon Church itself has had to make about four thousand changes in it?” I asked.7 ___________________________ 5 John 1:18; 4:24; Colossians 1:15; 1 Timothy 1:17 6 Exodus 33:18-23 7 Tanner, Jerald & Sandra, 3,913 Changes in the Book of Mormon, Utah Lighthouse Ministry: Salt Lake City, 1965.
“Those are just grammatical corrections, not doctrinal changes,” they responded.
“No, they are doctrinal changes, too!” I insisted. “In 1981, the Mormon Church changed one word in 2 Nephi 30:6: the word ‘white’ was changed to ‘pure’ when referring to the skin curse being removed from the Lamanites. Until that time, the official doctrine of the Mormon Church was that American Indians who believed in the Book of Mormon would lose the curse on their skin and turn white. It happened throughout the Book of Mormon when the Indians converted to faith in Christ,8 but though it was promised to happen in that verse, it did not happen from the time of the publishing of the Book of Mormon in 1830 up to 1981. As late as 1960, Mormon Prophet Spencer W. Kimball declared in the LDS General Conference that he believed that every time he visited Indian converts, they were getting whiter.9 But at last they changed that word in the Book of Mormon and also their doctrine about Indians turning white. Church spokesman Jerry P. Cahill was reported by the Associated Press as confirming the change in doctrine.10
“You see,” I said, “the Mormon Church is actually a racist organization. Its official teaching is that one day the other races will lose the curse on their skin and turn white.” (see Jacob 3:8 in the Book of Mormon) In fact, the real teaching of the Mormon Church on the races is not taught openly. Only in 1978 was the black African race permitted to participate in the Mormon priesthood, but even then, the doctrine concerning the removal of their curse was not changed. It is still what it always was—that all the children of Abel must first be resurrected and receive their reward before the African race will lose the curse.11
At this point, the dismay of the two Mormon missionaries was too much to hide.
“I was once a believer in the Book of Mormon myself,” I confided. My family sold everything we had in Missouri and went to Arizona to preach the gospel of the Book of Mormon to the American Indians. (Lamanites, in Book of Mormon language.) We told them that there were two great promises for the Indian through faith in Christ through the Book of Mormon: First of all, they would lose the curse on their skin and become white and delightsome. Secondly, at a certain point in time, Jesus Christ would give them permission to destroy all the unbelievers on this continent and get their land back!”
“Where does it say that?” one elder asked.
“In at least two places in the Book of Mormon: 3 Nephi 16 and 3 Nephi 21.”
I then borrowed a Book of Mormon from one of the young men and turned to 3 Nephi 16 and read the following words supposedly spoken by Jesus Christ on the American continent right after his resurrection: ___________________________________
8 Book of Mormon, 1 Nephi 12:23,; 3 Nephi 2:15-16; Jacob 3:5-8 9 Improvement Era, 1960, p. 922-23. 10 Salt Lake Tribune, September 30, 1981. 11 Journal of Discourses, Vol. 2, p. 143; Vol. 7, p 290-291; Vol. 11, p. 272.
10. At that day when the Gentiles shall sin against my gospel…and shall reject the fullness of my gospel, behold, saith the Father, I will bring the fullness of my gospel from among them. 11. And then will I remember my covenant which I have made unto my people, O house of Israel, and I will bring my gospel unto them. 12. And I will show unto thee, O house of Israel, that the Gentiles shall not have power over you; but I will remember my covenant unto you, O house of Israel, and ye shall come unto the knowledge of the fullness of my gospel 13. But if the Gentiles will repent and return unto me, saith the Father, behold they shall be numbered among my people, O house of Israel. 14. And I will not suffer my people, who are of the house of Israel, to go through among them, and tread them down, saith the Father. 15. But if they will not turn unto me, and hearken unto my voice, I will suffer them, yea, I will suffer my people, O house of Israel, that they shall go through among them, and shall tread them down, and they shall be as salt that hath lost its savor, which is thenceforth good for nothing but to be cast out, and to be trodden under foot of my people, O house of Israel 16. Verily, verily, I say unto you, thus hath the Father commanded me—that I should give unto this people this land for their inheritance. (emphasis is mine)
“How did the Indians respond?” they asked.
“Well,” I said, “they seemed unimpressed by the idea that their skin color needed changing! And when it came to getting their land back, one leader pressed his thumb down on the table and said, ‘The white man has us under his thumb and we will never get out from under it!’ I saw this conversation take place on the Pima Indian reservation in Arizona as a lad.
“But those were the words of Jesus!” one of them protested. “They really are going to take place!”
“No,” I replied. “Jesus never said that. That is not the Jesus of the Bible!”
“I doubt that you know much about these things,” I said. “You are too young to know what changes have taken place in the Mormon Church. I don’t doubt your sincerity or your desire to be used of God. But you just do not know much about what your church really believes. To know its true doctrines, you have to go back and read the old Mormon sermons in the Journal of Discourses. The Mormon doctrine is the same as it was then, but with modifications. The Mormon Church doesn’t expect its members to read those books. In fact, it discourages non-Mormons who want to talk to Mormons from referring to them. It tries to limit interfaith discussion only to its official scriptures.”
“However, in their own teaching sessions, the Mormon teachers constantly make reference to them. I watch the Mormon channel on satellite TV, and they explain their doctrines with constant references to the Journal of Discourses. No, I came to the point where I realized that the true Gospel is fully contained in the New Testament. I received full assurance that I could let all of Joseph Smith’s revelations fall by the wayside and still go to heaven. My faith is in Jesus Christ and his teachings as preserved and interpreted in the New Testament. If Jesus Christ saves me, neither lack of faith in Joseph Smith or in the Book of Mormon can make me lose my soul!
Being born again, not of corruptible seed, but of incorruptible , by the word of God, which liveth and abideth for ever. (1 Peter 1:23)
Beloved, …it was needful for me to write unto you, and exhort you that ye should earnestly contend for the faith which was once delivered unto the saints. (Jude 3)
By now the missionaries were restless and wanting to make their exit, so I asked them to say anything else they wanted to say. When they tried to reaffirm their faith in Joseph Smith and the Book of Mormon, I sadly corrected their affirmations.
“No, the Jesus you are talking about is not the Jesus of the Bible. I’m sorry. You are teaching what the New Testament describes in 2 Corinthians 11:
4. For if he that cometh preacheth another Jesus, whom we have not preached, or if ye receive another spirit, which ye have not received, or another gospel, which ye have not accepted, ye might well bear with him…
13. For such are false apostles…transforming themselves into the apostles of Christ.
We ended with a word of prayer which I led, praying for them, that they would indeed come to know the truth of the Gospel of Jesus Christ and true salvation. I have taken the time to make a written account of their visit to my house for the benefit of all my Mormon and Christian friends. My sincere desire is that God bless you through reading it.
You may contact me, should you so desire at dr.dean@deanhelland.com.
(If you should be interested in pursuing this matter further, a streaming video with scientists explaining that DNA evidence demonstrates that the Book of Mormon errs when it claims the American Indians to be Israelites may be viewed free online in “DNA vs. the Book of Mormon” at www.mormonchallenge.com.) Prayer of Salvation: Lord Jesus, I thank you for your Holy Word, the Bible, which reveals the plan of salvation which is so simple. I repent for thinking that a church could save me when you only ask me to come to you in simple faith. Lord, I have heard your knock at the door of my heart. I open that door and ask you to come in. I believe that you lived a sinless life, took my sins upon you when you died on the cross, and are now at the right hand of the Father, praying for me. I renounce Mormonism and everything associated it. I ask for release from all the spirits of deception I have allowed in my life by doubting your holy Word and following the teachings of men. Cleanse me with your shed blood. I believe. I receive you now as my Lord and Savior. I will seek out a church which teaches the Bible as the guide for my life. I will be re-baptized as a testimony of my new-found faith. I give you my life. Do with me what you will. I promise never leave you, with the help of the Holy Spirit. Thank you, Jesus! Amen! If you prayed this prayer sincerely, please contact Dr. Dean at the email address below and let him know about it. He will see that you receive the guidance necessary to keep you in the ways of the Lord. Of course, your name and email address will be kept confidential. NOTE: All other correspondence with Dr. Dean is with the understanding that it may be used in part or in whole on this website or elsewhere.
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