Anti-Mormons

[CatchTheRedeye]

OK, I've got a question for you all. This has really puzzled me. Why are there Anti-Mormons and why do many of them fight against the LDS church? I google "Mormons" or "LDS" and it seems like half the sites are people, many who used to be Mormons, who make it their life's work to knock down the church. Why don't they give it a rest? I don't hear about anti-Lutherans or anti-Baptists or anti-Catholics. I went to Utah a while back and went to the temple square thingy and there were people handing out leaflets against the church and had rude signs. I asked one of them why they were wasting their time tearing down another religion and he just said that they loved Mormons but were afraid they were all lost and were trying to save them for Jesus. That is crap. I just told him to get a life and worry about himself.

Maybe I'm an anti-Baptist or anti-Jehovah Witness. I've had run-ins with them where they get real irate and almost violent when I tell them I'm agnostic. When I tell Mormons that they have always been nice and said that they respect my opinion, but don't share it. Cool

[VisionOfLehi]

Because, my friend, history will repeat itself, as prophesied.

10 And he said unto me: Behold there are save two churches only; the one is the church of the Lamb of God, and the other is the church of the devil; wherefore, whoso belongeth not to the church of the Lamb of God belongeth to that great church, which is the mother of abominations; and she is the whore of all the earth.


11 And it came to pass that I looked and beheld the whore of all the earth, and she sat upon many waters; and she had dominion over all the earth, among all nations, kindreds, tongues, and people.

12 And it came to pass that I beheld the church of the Lamb of God, and its numbers were few, because of the wickedness and abominations of the whore who sat upon many waters; nevertheless, I beheld that the church of the Lamb, who were the saints of God, were also upon all the face of the earth; and their dominions upon the face of the earth were small, because of the wickedness of the great whore whom I saw.

13 And it came to pass that I beheld that the great mother of abominations did gather together multitudes upon the face of all the earth, among all the nations of the Gentiles, to fight against the Lamb of God.

14 And it came to pass that I, Nephi, beheld the power of the Lamb of God, that it descended upon the saints of the church of the Lamb, and upon the covenant people of the Lord, who were scattered upon all the face of the earth; and they were armed with righteousness and with the power of God in great glory.

15 And it came to pass that I beheld that the wrath of God was poured out upon that great and abominable church, insomuch that there were wars and rumors of wars among all the nations and kindreds of the earth.

16 And as there began to be wars and rumors of wars among all the nations which belonged to the mother of abominations, the angel spake unto me, saying: Behold, the wrath of God is upon the mother of harlots; and behold, thou seest all these things—

17 And when the day cometh that the wrath of God is poured out upon the mother of harlots, which is the great and abominable church of all the earth, whose founder is the devil, then, at that day, the work of the Father shall commence, in preparing the way for the fulfilling of his covenants, which he hath made to his people who are of the house of Israel.

[RachelleDrew]

There are a lot of reasons why someone would specifically move against the church when they had previously been members. I feel bad for them, because it takes a lot to go through the process of leaving the church officially. To go through all that just to disassociate with a religious group means somebody really feels wronged for some reason. If they just got bored with the church or just lost their testimony chances are they would just be inactive members, not antis.

I've spoken one on one with some adamant antis, and a lot of them have really sad experiences with the church. My heart breaks for them, because nobody should have to feel unsafe or unhappy in their church. But at the same time, it's no reason to blame the entire institution and the scripture it's based off.

There are also antis who have absolutely no experience or knowledge of the church. I don't feel so sorry for them, because it only makes you look stupid to berate the Book of Mormon when you haven't even read it. Maybe they are concerned for our salvation, but some are just there to feel pious.

Every church has to face criticism at some point in it's existence. It's best to just be loving to them and ignore their words.

[CatchTheRedeye]

Lehi,
Very interesting. I remember reading that. Is this "whore of all the earth" church it talks about one certain church or is it any church that isn't Mormon? What do you think it means when it says it sits on many waters? An island? Just curious.

[CatchTheRedeye]

Well said Rachelle. I agree with just about everything you said.

[VisionOfLehi]

Originally Posted by CatchTheRedeye

Lehi,
Very interesting. I remember reading that. Is this "whore of all the earth" church it talks about one certain church or is it any church that isn't Mormon? What do you think it means when it says it sits on many waters? An island? Just curious.

As I recall, it shall be made up of many churches and "churches."

And the many waters thing, I think has a couple meanings.

One, it shows that the church of Babylon shall be everywhere. "Many waters" means "Many places." IMO

But water has important symbolism. Blood, baptism, water of life.

So the church of Babylon will sit upon many FALSE practices, ordinances... Those proclaiming to be the true church. Or just ordinances completely outside of true doctrine.

Sins will be taught as things that lead to God. In other words, lies will be proclaimed and believed.

This is strictly my opinion. I've not been taught anything specific on the subject.



The Church of the Lamb refers to all the believers in Christ. Those who follow Him shall be persecuted. Personally, I don't think this includes JUST LDS people, but those who actually obey His commandments and try to be like Him.

It does say they will be FEW in number. Right now we have something like 1 BILLION "proclaimed" Christians, and I just don't think most of them "truly" are.

[VisionOfLehi]

Originally Posted by RachelleDrew

There are also antis who have absolutely no experience or knowledge of the church. I don't feel so sorry for them, because it only makes you look stupid to berate the Book of Mormon when you haven't even read it. Maybe they are concerned for our salvation, but some are just there to feel pious.

There are some antis who hide as wolves in sheep's clothing, and HAVE read tho BoM and actually quote it to back up their own non-doctrinal viewpoints, trying to prove us wrong or whatever. These are people who have never even been in the Church, and don't desire to be.


But, lucky us, we have modern prophets who guide us to the CORRECT interpretation.

[RachelleDrew]

Originally Posted by VisionOfLehi

There are some antis who hide as wolves in sheep's clothing, and HAVE read tho BoM and actually quote it to back up their own non-doctrinal viewpoints, trying to prove us wrong or whatever. These are people who have never even been in the Church, and don't desire to be.


But, lucky us, we have modern prophets who guide us to the CORRECT interpretation.

I've met one or two of those as well. I would give them credit for at least reading it, but anytime somebody picks up a book with the intention of finding fault with it, they will.

There is a big difference between someone who reads our scripture with a curious, open mind and still doesn't believe it is truth, and somebody who reads our scripture with the sole intent of picking it apart and twisting it to suit their agenda. The former are the ones that I find to be particularly offensive.

[VisionOfLehi]

Originally Posted by RachelleDrew

I've met one or two of those as well. I would give them credit for at least reading it, but anytime somebody picks up a book with the intention of finding fault with it, they will.

Haha... I tried that, and look where I am now.

[thekolobkid]

Originally Posted by CatchTheRedeye

Lehi,
Very interesting. I remember reading that. Is this "whore of all the earth" church it talks about one certain church or is it any church that isn't Mormon? What do you think it means when it says it sits on many waters? An island? Just curious.

I am sure that I will get into trouble for saying this but the "whore of all the earth" is believed by many to be the Catholic Church specifically. In the LDS Church we don't believe that it is that simple. We believe that the "whore of all the earth/Church of the devil" is any organization that seeks to lead people away from Christ. Technically by this definition even members of Christs true Church can actually be members of the Church of the devil if they are leading people away from Christ. Like those idiot Return Missionaries who are posing for the topless missionary calendar. They are trying to merge Zion and Babylon together and history and the scriptures make it clear that when you attempt to mix Zion with Babylon you end up with only Babylon, hence the scriptures saying that "Zion is fled"

Elder Bruce R. McConkie who was the Apostle that wrote Mormon Doctrine, said in the first edition of that volume that the "church of the devil" was specifically the Catholic Church. The Prophet and the other Apostles told him that he couldn't single out another religion like that because it will lead to contention and make it difficult to build relationships with other people. However if you look at the scriptural descriptions of the "whore of all the earth/Church of the devil" they tend to describe the Catholic Church who have taken on most of the trappings of the ancient Babylonian religion. This is not to say that the Catholocs are in any way bad people. I myself have many friends who are Catholics, some devout and some not and they are all great people. The problem is that if you look at the history of the Catholic Church it has engaged in a lot more than simple proselytizing. They have subjugated kingdoms and republics, tortured and murdered, They practically invented the modern intelligence network. Not the least of these horrors was the Inquisition. Certainly other religions have committed the same crimes as the Catholics but the Catholics just seem to be more masterful at it, so they have gotten most of the prophetic spotlight when it comes to the "whore of all the earth/Church of the devil".

I would specifically point the finger at the Jesuit Society which is a military order of priests within the Catholic Church which is apparently sworn by oath to bring the whole world under the subjugation of the Pope. The Jesuits are truly the masters of intelligence and espionage. When Hitler gave the job of setting up the NAZI SS to Himmler he said "In Himmler I have my own Ignatius de Loyola" Ignatius de Loyola was the founder of the society of the Jesuits. Himmler then modeled the SS on the Jesuits and after WWII thanks to Operation Paperclip our CIA was modeled on the SS.

During the 1800's the Jesuits were kicked out of most of the nations of Europe because they had been working political intrigues behind the scenes. In fact the dislike of the Jesuits by Europe was so intense that the Pope had to officially condemn the Jesuits. When he did this he acknowledge verbally that he was signing his own death warrant, and that losing the Jesuits was like cutting off his own right hand because they were so useful. If I recall correctly he was dead within a year of signing the order to disband the Jesuits. They went underground in Europe for a few decades then they came back into prominence and began setting up schools in all the nations so that they could control the education of the children of these nations. Here in America we have several Jesuit schools where they supposedly are able to manipulate the students into their line of thinking. I say supposedly because I try to look at these things with a grain of salt always, but there are just way too many historical acts of willful contention to dismiss the claims against the Jesuits. They are a hardcore bunch.

So when we speak of the "whore of all the earth/Church of the devil" Mormons are quick to not point the finger at anyone particularly to avoid contention, but that doesn't mean that no body out there fits the bill. We just don't want to become Anti-anybody because then doors/ears/minds/hearts close to us and we are unable to share the restored gospel with our individual brothers and sisters that might belong to an organization that we have pitted ourselves against. This is not Christs Doctrine, because the Savior has taught us to Love one another, even as he has loved us, and that the worth of souls is great, therefore we should not esteem someone as "children of the devil" or anything like that which will alienate people. Which is what happens when Anti Mormons try to protest Mormonism. They claim that they love us but they insult and make fun of our faith and claim that it is out of love so that they won't look like monsters. This is the same mentality that cause abusive men to tell their battered wives that they hurt them because the love them so much.

Actually there are anti-Catholics (because of many of the reasons I stated above) and anti-Jehovah's Witnesses. Actually many of the same "Christian" groups that are anti-Mormon are also anti-anything else that doesn't fit into their mental image of what is right and wrong. I think they like to focus on us because they feel threatened by both our active proselytizing and our incredibly rapid growth.