I'm in shock! pls help,, is this true about mormon teaching??

[MissSpider]

[FONT="Arial"][SIZE="2"][SIZE="3"]hi there
im a new member of the church . i used to be a protestant , but i have not gone to church for a while, until i met the mormon missionary , and now im covert to mormon church. i love God and Jesus Christ. i love mormon and happy to be mormon.
i was reading a lot of debate about Mormon as a true church or not. so as i want to become missionary in the future and i want to be able to answer all the question in the debate that Mormon is the true chuch. and i found this ex-mormon website. so i read... and i found something that is trouble me.

are this true? is mormon really teaching like this?

1.God was once a man like us. (wait a sec how can God used to be a man?)
2.God lives on a planet near the star Kolob. (what?!)
3.God ("Heavenly Father") has at least one wife, our "Mother in Heaven," but she is so holy that we are not to discuss her nor pray to her. (okay i can accept this one)
4.Jesus was married. (No way)
5.We can become like God and rule over our own universe. (i know we can be gods,but ruling our own universe is different thing)
6.There are many gods, ruling over their own worlds.
7.Jesus Christ was conceived by God the Father by having sex with Mary, who was temporarily his wife. (God was having sex with Mary ???!!!)
8.We should not pray to Jesus, nor try to feel a personal relationship with him.
10.In the highest degree of the celestial kingdom some men will have more than one wife. (what! so why do we need to seal for)
11.Before coming to this earth we lived as spirits in a "pre-existence", during which we were tested; our position in this life (whether born to Mormons or savages, or in America or Africa) is our reward or punishment for our obedience in that life. (but arenot we have a perfect/pure life before we come to earth???)
12.Dark skin is a curse from God, the result of our sin, or the sin of our ancestors. If sufficiently righteous, a dark-skinned person will become light-skinned.
13.The Garden of Eden was in Missouri. All humanity before the Great Flood lived in the western hemisphere. The Ark transported Noah and the other survivors to the eastern hemisphere. (Garden of Eden was in Missouri???)
15.Christ will not return to earth in any year that has seen a rainbow.
16.The sun receives its light from the star Kolob. (where is this Kolob anyway)
17.A righteous Mormon will actually see the face of God in the Mormon temple.
18.You can identify a false angel by the color of his hair, or by offering to shake his hand.

i am in shock and need a lot of help now,,, IS THIS REALLY TRUE? this article from ex-mormon was written in 2011.

i will ask the Elders later when i meet them for another session too.
but please help me out now.
i love mormon so much and now i feel quite in shock.

[Eowyn]

1. Why are you getting your information from something written by an ex-Mormon?

2. Many of this are only speculation at best. Most are utter nonsense.

[MissSpider]

dear Eowyn,,,
since i want to become a missionary myself so i know that i would have quite a lot of debate with other christian,, and my experience that i was look down by one catholic guy saying to me that Mormon is a false religious.

so i try to look what they think it was wrong with us so i can argue with them that we are right. so i just go look on internet on several website to see what the catholic and protestant view on Mormon. i found several articles and website that at least with my level of knowledge, i can argue with even not 100% on everything. however , when i read those article they posed on ex-Mormon , i couldnot find the arguement over these since i never learn anything such that. the elder didnot teach me about it and i never heard about it in the Bible.
so i get confuse and shock.

i dont like it when catholic and protestant look as us badly. i want to be pround of Mormon.

[bytor2112]

Misspider.....I am guessing that you joined the church because of the Holy Spirit and not because you were an expert in LDS doctrine....right? There are critics of all faiths out their and rather than coming to an internet forum, LDS or former LDS ,is not the way to learn about the teachings of the church.

The things of God can only be understood by the power of the Holy Spirit. Before your wee baptized....did you pray to know the church was indeed the Church of Jesus Christ? The Lord reveals sacred truths to each of us.... as we are prepared to receive it. Many of the statements you have posed are framed in a way to achieve a desired response....kind of like how you have responded. Kind of like..."Christians believe in talking donkeys".

There are very good and detailed answers to everything you have posted...but in the end, that will not convince you. It is the Holy Spirit that teaches and testifies....seek the Lord in prayer about whether this is HIS church or not. It is..............

[slamjet]

You don't learn to fly an airplane by studying all the ways to crash it. You don't learn to talk to a drug addict by trying crack and heroin. Same with doctrinal stuff. You don't learn the gospel by reading anti-mormon literature. Let the church say what it believes and then take it to the Lord. There is only one item on your list that comes close to doctrine.

Don't let the anti-Mormon's dictate your belief. I would say the same about not letting anti-Catholics dictate a Catholics belief and so forth down the list.

[skippy740]

I will address a select few of your questions. However, I will strongly encourage you to ask the missionaries... and to do more searching on lds.org and even here on lds.net.

Originally Posted by MissSpider

8.We should not pray to Jesus, nor try to feel a personal relationship with him.

We pray to the Father because that is who Jesus Christ prays to.

Originally Posted by MissSpider

11.Before coming to this earth we lived as spirits in a "pre-existence", during which we were tested; our position in this life (whether born to Mormons or savages, or in America or Africa) is our reward or punishment for our obedience in that life. (but arenot we have a perfect/pure life before we come to earth???)

False statement. Never even heard of that one. There were other related false teachings, but they are also answered in the link that I provided below for your next question.

Originally Posted by MissSpider

12.Dark skin is a curse from God, the result of our sin, or the sin of our ancestors. If sufficiently righteous, a dark-skinned person will become light-skinned.

Start here:
Scriptures, Church History & Racism (Blacks in the Scriptures)

Originally Posted by MissSpider

15.Christ will not return to earth in any year that has seen a rainbow.

No rainbows before Second Coming - LDS Mormon myth and legend

Originally Posted by MissSpider

16.The sun receives its light from the star Kolob. (where is this Kolob anyway)

Never heard of that one. False interpretation/teaching.

Originally Posted by MissSpider

18.You can identify a false angel by the color of his hair, or by offering to shake his hand.

Doctrine and Covenants 129*

Originally Posted by MissSpider

i am in shock and need a lot of help now,,, IS THIS REALLY TRUE? this article from ex-mormon was written in 2011.

Why do ex-mormons have more credibility to you than the Holy Spirit does?

1 Timothy 1:7

7 For God hath not given us the spirit of fear; but of power, and of love, and of a sound mind.

[MissSpider]

bytor2112 , slamjet --> i met the missionary when i was walking in downtown. it was really amazing. i know only few Mormon doctrine before i get baptize. i feel happy being in the church and sunday now become my favorite day of all cause i can study scripture ,learn new thing in sunday school and watching missionary movie with my mormon friends. i never feel this way when i was in protestant church...that why i covert to mormon.

Skippy740 --> the question you ask make me realize how stupid/idiot i am to believe in what they said!!
"Why do ex-mormons have more credibility to you than the Holy Spirit does?"

thank you ,, it make me feel a lot happier now. i'll pray before going to sleep tonight

[skippy740]

Originally Posted by MissSpider

dear Eowyn,,,
since i want to become a missionary myself so i know that i would have quite a lot of debate with other christian,, and my experience that i was look down by one catholic guy saying to me that Mormon is a false religious.

so i try to look what they think it was wrong with us so i can argue with them that we are right. so i just go look on internet on several website to see what the catholic and protestant view on Mormon. i found several articles and website that at least with my level of knowledge, i can argue with even not 100% on everything. however , when i read those article they posed on ex-Mormon , i couldnot find the arguement over these since i never learn anything such that. the elder didnot teach me about it and i never heard about it in the Bible.
so i get confuse and shock.

i dont like it when catholic and protestant look as us badly. i want to be pround of Mormon.

You may want to read 3 Nephi 11 again.

3 Nephi 11*

29 For verily, verily I say unto you, he that hath the spirit of contention is not of me, but is of the devil, who is the father of contention, and he stirreth up the hearts of men to contend with anger, one with another.

30 Behold, this is not my doctrine, to stir up the hearts of men with anger, one against another; but this is my doctrine, that such things should be done away.

Missionaries help investigators who are searching to clarify proper LDS doctrines.

Missionaries are NOT to "Bible Bash". Bashing is typically done in the absence of the Spirit.

If your job is to try to convince people that "we're right"... you won't have the Spirit with you, you'll be alone in your own power and you won't be following the Articles of Faith.

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.

I've never seen anyone "argue" someone to the waters of baptism.


If you want the "secrets" to successful 'bashing', here they are:
1) Testify
2) Use Book of Mormon verses

No one can refute your own testimony, nor The Book of Mormon.

[skippy740]

You may also find this article helpful: The Challenging and Testifying Missionary

As I look back into my first mission as a young man, I remember one of my companions. He was a very brilliant student. He came into the mission at 20 with a doctor's degree. He had gained that in mathematics, and perhaps because of his training and his scholastic abilities, had in his mind solely that conversion to the gospel was a matter of detailed mechanism made possible by forceful teaching and the presentation of certain gospel facts that people might then, by power of argument, be made to accept the truth. I remember that everything about that bothered me because it did not seem to me the way to preach the gospel. He was the most wonderful of companions.
[...]

I used to emphasize then, when I was only 18, that the way to teach the gospel was by the "Power of the Holy Spirit." This has been with me all my life - there can be no other effective way to teach the gospel.

[anatess]

MissSpider, just a word of advice... LDS Missionaries do not debate anybody on gospel teachings. LDS Missionaries TEACH. If somebody tries to argue, they don't argue back. They, once again, teach. A missionary cannot teach without the Holy Spirit. When one is arguing, they are not receptive to the Holy Spirit. If they ask questions, you can answer with what you know is true. It's not a good idea to go around looking for any false doctrine ever uttered and learn to debunk it to prepare to be a missionary. What you do is gain a testimony of the gospel by diligent study and prayer - if you need a "lesson plan", you can go to LDS.org and go through the Seminary materials chapter by chapter, or if that's too much to go through, you can simply start with Gospel Principles.

Here is an online link to all the classes in Sunday School. This includes Gospel Principles.