Vol. 7, No. 9, 1990

Articles on Mormonism

Jeff Dannemiller

In a 1989 video What Is Real, produced by the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints appears a young man named Sandy, looking for him and his family real answers to serious questions.

Some of the questions are "What is the purpose of life" and "Why are we here?" Sandy begins backstage on a movie set and says, "Now whether or not the answers he finds are real or pretend - like scenes on a stage - well, that's really up to you to decide."

He then proceeds to move in and out of different stage settings, in a flash-back style, looking for real answers to his questions.

Sandy remembers an important conversation he had with his dad in the garage when he ask the question, "How do you know when you have actually found the truth?"

Sandy's dad tells him he does not have all of the answers to life's tough questions. However, he states, "The thing I have learned though - the more important the question, the more the answer comes from your heart.

"The real important questions are answered here (pointing to his heart). I don't know wheth¬er that's profound or naive but it sure has worked for your mother and me."

The video ends with Sandy sitting on the floor of the nursery holding his baby girl, talking to her about what he has learned and what is real.

He explains, "I guess it all boils down to this, Jenny, is whether or not it's real. Whether all the things I have been telling you about are make-believe like scenery or real. I've got to know if they are real - the restored gospel of Jesus Christ is real."

The message of this video is to trust in your heart to tell you the truth. However, to find the truth, a couple questions must be asked.

First, is it biblical to trust in your heart alone for the truth?

Second, why do the Mormons want you to trust in your heart to find truth?

Saving the more important question until later, let's look at the second question first.

Why does the LDS Church ask people to believe simply with their heart? Because they have no hard evidence or facts to support their claims.

Joseph Smith claimed that the Book of Mormon is a true historical book, like the Bible. Where the Bible is God's record of the Jewish people. According to Mormonism, the Book of Mormon is God's record of the ancient inhabitants of the Americas and their history, thus making the Book of Mormon a companion book to the Bible.

Joseph Smith said, concerning the Book of Mormon, it is "...the most correct of any book on the earth and the keystone of our religion, and a man would get nearer to God by abiding its precepts than any other book," (History of the Church, Vol. 4, p. 461; emphasis added).

Orson Pratt, an early Mormon apostle, declared, "The nature of the message in the Book of Mormon is such that, if true, no one can possibly be saved and reject it. If false no one can possibly be saved and receive it," (Divine Authenticity of the Book of Mormon, p. 107; emphasis added).

Finally in the October 1984, General Conference of the LDS Church, Ezra Taft Benson made the statement, "The Book of Mormon is the greatest single tool which God has given us to convert the world," (Ensign, November, 1984, p. 7; emphasis added).

It is clear to see that past and present prophets and apostles of the LDS Church hold the Book of Mormon in high esteem. Why? Do they know something we do not know?

No. It is a heart issue. They believe in it in their hearts.

Again, there is no hard evidence or facts to support that the Book of Mormon is true or archaeologically correct.

Remember, Joseph Smith said, "It was the most correct of any book on earth and the keystone of our religion," and he is the one who translated the Book of Mormon and is the founder and first prophet of the LDS Church.

Why is this a "heart" issue with the Mormons?

In a letter addressed to the Department of Archaeology, Brigham Young University, Watchman Fellowship's Bud Press got this answer to his question on the authenticity of the �Book of Mormono:

"My position (John L. Sorenson's, not BYU's or the LDS Church's) is that I am only trying to find out the truth. On one hand, I have always had spiritual assurance that the Book of Mormon is authentically accurate and divinely inspired. On the other hand, 35 years of professional study has taught me that archaeologically and related materials as interpreted in the fold LDS translation do not necessarily represent either what the scripture itself is saying, on the one hand, or what capable archaeologists are saying on the other," (March 7, 1987).

Sorenson goes on to recommend some books to read and closes the letter with this:

"Whatever the outcome of `archaeological evidence,' each person is left at the end to determine for himself whether or not the Book of Mormon is what it claims to be. The Lord promises you, as much as any other person, can settle the matter by seeking from Him through the prayer of faith and assurance that the book if authentically prophetic. I urge you to take Him up on it. Science will - can - never settle the matter. Sincerely, your brother, John L. Sorenson, Professor Emeritus, Anthropology."

The National Museum of Natural History, Department of Anthropology at the Smithsonian Institute, Washington D.C., says this in their statement regarding the Book of Mormon:

"The Smithsonian Institute has never used the Book of Mormon in any way as a scientific guide. Smithsonian archaeol¬ogists see no direct connection between the archaeology of the New World and the subject matter of the book," (emphasis added).

The Smithsonian goes on to report seven major archaeological problems in the Book of Mormon.

The Mormon Church has over 40,000 missionaries going door to door, worldwide with no real historical or archaeological proof that their church teaches or represents the truth.

That is why they ask people to pray whether or not the Book of Mormon is true - because they have no sound evidence which they can present.

The missionaries will give their personal testimonies (their "burning in their bosom) that they know the Book of Mormon is true and that LDS Church is the only true church of Jesus Christ.

Here again they are relying on their hearts to reveal to them what is true. According to Mormonism, the real important questions are answered in the heart.

However, the Mormons have been deceived in their hearts, whether by appearance, statement or influence. It has given them a false impression of truth which leads the second question: Is it biblical to trust in the heart alone for truth?

In Genesis 6, God is looking down at man and says this about the condition of man's heart in verse five, "And God saw that the wickedness of man was great in the earth, and that every imagination of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continuously."

In Chapter 17, verse nine, God says this through his prophet Jeremiah, "The heart is deceitful above all things and desperately wicked. Who can know (understand) it?"

And Jesus teaches this about the heart, "But those things which proceed out of the mouth come forth from the heart; and they defile the man for out of the heart proceed evil thoughts, murders, adulteries, fornications, thefts, false witnesses, blasphemies," (Matt. 15:18-19).

It is clear from the above verses that the heart is wicked, evil and can be deceived. The devil is the deceiver (Rev. 12:9). He is the one who deceived (beguiled) Eve in the garden (2 Cor. 11:3). And when it became time for Judas to betray Jesus, John tells that the devil put it in his heart and entered into him (John 13:2, 27).

We see Peter being used of God to proclaim that Jesus is the Christ (Matt. 16:16-17) and then in the following verses, he is used by Satan to try to stop Jesus from going to the cross (Matt. 16:21-23).

Satan also fills the hearts of two people in the church, trying to do good deed as in the case of Ananias and Sapphira (Acts 5:1-11).

"According to thorough investigation and evidence of Scripture in all its parts, the heart is the innermost center of the natural condition of man," (Unger's Bible Dictionary, "Heart," p. 463).

Unger goes on to define the heart in three major areas:

"1) the center of body life..., 2) the center of rational-spiritual nature of man..., 3) the center of the entire man, the hearth of life's impulse," (Ibid).

Scripture goes on to describe the heart as the seat of love (Mark 12:30-33); of hatred (Lev. 19:17); of obedience (Romans 16:26); and of pride (Prov. 16:5).

It is the dwelling place of Christ in the believer (Eph. 3:17) and of the Holy Spirit (2 Cor. 1:22). It is the receptacle of the love of God (Romans 5:5). The Scripture also makes it clear that as believers with regenerated hearts, we are to love God with all our hearts (Matt. 22:37), serve God with all our hearts, trust the Lord with all our hearts (Prov. 3:5).

With all this activity going on in the heart, it is very difficult to separate the "want to" of the heart (Gal. 6:3). The deceitful disguises of Satan transforming himself into an angel of light (2 Cor. 11:14) and the true enlightenment of the heart that Paul prays for the saints, so they may know the hope of his calling (Eph. 1:18).

The person who accepts his own impressions at face value is extremely vulnerable because nowhere in Scripture does it tell us to trust in your hearts alone for the truth.

We are told in 1 John 4:1, "Beloved, believe not every spirit but try (test) whether or not they are of God; because many false prophets are gone out into the world."

When we enter into the spiritual realm to worship God in spirit and truth; for such people, the Father seeks to be His worshippers (John 4:23).

What we have to realize is that our hearts can be deceived. That is why Paul gives a similar commandment in 1 Thess. 5:21: "Prove all things; hold fast to that which is good."

But the simplest knowledge is beyond the perception of man in his natural state unless the Spirit of Truth grants him understanding as a sovereign gift of grace (1 Cor. 2:14).

The Mormons have been deceived in their hearts about the truth of the Book of Mormon because there is no proof that the Book of Mormon is historically or archaeologically correct (and that is why you will never find any maps in the Book of Mormon).

Therefore, it cannot be truth.

Why would the Mormons place the Book of Mormon in higher esteem than the Bible when it is nothing more than a piece of unsubstantiated literature?

The Mormons have to believe in their hearts by faith that the Book of Mormon is true because they have no evidence. That is why they went through all the trouble to produce this video: What Is Real?

They have to work to prove themselves worthy to become gods (Mormon salvation). This is contrary to what the Bible teaches.

We, as Christians, are saved by the grace of God through faith in the completed work of Jesus Christ and accept the Bible to be the word of God because, among other reasons, historical and archaeological evidence supports the truth of Scripture.