NOTHING
Why have visions and revelations ceased in the Mormon Church? Is it because they aren't needed anymore?
Joseph Smith relates:
"Some few days after I had this vision, I happened to be in company with one of the Methodist preachers...I was greatly surprised by his behaviour; he treated my communication not only lightly, but with great contempt, saying it was all of the devil, and there were no such things as visions or revelations in these days; that all such things had ceased with the apostles..." (Jos.Smith History 1:21).
"I would exhort you that ye deny not the power of God; for He worketh by power, according to the faith of the children of men, the same today, and tomorrow, and forever" (Moroni 10:7)
The Gospel is the same yesterday, today, and forever...
What do the people have when they have the true Gospel:
"...there are many among us who have many revelations, for they are not all stiffnecked.." (Jarom 1:4)
How often did they have revelations?
"...many of their brethren who knew concerning the true points of doctrine, having many revelations daily..." (Helaman 11:23)
A warning:
"..wo unto him who shall...say the Lord no longer worketh by revelation, or by prophecy, or by gifts, or by tongues, or by healings, or by the power of the Holy Ghost!" (3 Ne.29:6; see Mormon 9:7).
A day is coming when those who truly exercise faith in God will have manifested to them the things the brother of Jared saw "even to the unfolding of ALL my revelations, saith Jesus Christ..." (Ether 4:7)
What is the condition of more revelation? FAITH
Why is it, then, that no more revelations come forth? FAITHLESSNESS or DISBELIEF.
Faithlessness. Not because "they aren't needed" -- that's what the Protestants and Catholics said to Joseph Smith. It has ever been the excuse of apostate Christianity.
BUT GOD HAS SPOKEN AGAIN!
A Modern-Day Revelatory Church
The New Covenant Church of God
1986-2001 (Total: 16 years)
WHERE THERE IS FAITH, GOD IS ACTIVE
WHERE THERE IS ONE INTELLIGENCE, THERE IS ONE ABOVE IT
And so God reveals Himself line upon line...
Now God invites YOU to become a part of His Latter Day Restoration Work and to
MOVE ON
Authority is life, light, revelation and power...
not a dead Priesthood
GOD LOVES FAITH
The Spirit of God is grieved by faithlessness
"(when) the Spirit of the Lord is grieved, AMEN TO THE PRIESTHOOD OR...AUTHORITY (D&C 121:37).
No revelations
No Priesthood
No authority
No true Church
Instead:
Unrighteous dominion
Compulsion
Pride and Boasting
Many are called, but few are chosen (D&C 121:40)
The first Latter-day Saints were called...
but not chosen.
If there was a true Church in Nephi's day (assuming he existed)...
It isn't here now
If there was a true Church in 1831 (D&C 1:30 -- assuming this revelation is from God)...
That doesn't mean to say it is here now...
No Church has even been given protection against apostasy...
Because a church is as true as its members
What is our duty, then?
"It is your duty to unite with the true Church" (D&C 23:7)
New Covenant Christians have done that...
at least, with the truest Church they can find.
"(If) there are two spirits, one being more intelligent than the other, there shall be another more intelligent than they. I am the Lord thy God, I am more intelligent than they all" (Abraham 3:19).
What is authority?
IT IS THE NAME OF JESUS CHRIST
"..I will put upon thee My Name,
EVEN (in other words) THE PRIESTHOOD"
(Abraham 1:18)
How does one get it?
Through the Holy Spirit
How does one receive the Holy Spirit?
- By the laying on of hands
OR
- BREATHING (John 20:22)
OR
- FAITH
OR
- PRAYER
OR
- HOWEVER GOD CHOOSES!
God is not controlled by men...
Men have no right to dictate to God...
The Spirit comes and goes like the wind...
"The wind bloweth where it listeth,
and thou hearest the sound thereof,
but canst not tell whence it cometh, and whither it goeth;
SO IS EVERY ONE THAT IS BORN OF THE SPIRIT"
(John 3:8, AV)
How do we know whether someone has the Holy Spirit?
BY THEIR WORKS!
"Verily, verily, I say unto you,
He that believeth on Me,
THE WORKS THAT I DO SHALL HE DO ALSO"
(John 14:12)
If there is a truth on the earth...
There is one higher than it.
If there is an intelligent spirit on the earth...
There is one more intelligent than it.
If there is a true Church on the earth...
There is one truer to it.
To find out more, contact:
THE NEW COVENANT CHURCH OF GOD
Endnote (10 March 2001)
The reason revelations of the type Joseph Smith received ended with him is because his successors were not initiated into the same occultic powers as he was. This "occultic connection" became progressively weaker over the generations so that today we arrive at a stage where Mormon prophets are only able to give supposedly "inspired talks". Though the Mormon Church is still very much steeped in occultism and is still steered by the same Nefilim spirits, it no longer has the same access to occultic power that Smith did. Hence the end of formal written revelations. The excuse given by Mormons - that no more revelation of this kind is needed - was the very thing the early Mormons (and a good deal of the modern ones) faulted the Catholic and Protestant Churches for.
Smith, it will be remembered, was involved in occultic magic and was deeply into Freemasonry. His acquaintance with "familiar spirits", never exorcised, was the door used by Satan to impersonate true angels of God. Joseph Smith's one and only bona fide experience - in the grove at Palmyra - was on account of his desire to repent and come into right relationship with God. This account he severely modified later in order to accommodate his new Nefilim-inspired doctrines of authority and one-true-churchism. His corruption at the hands of demons appearing as angels of light became progressively worse over the years, leading to his nemesis at Carthage Jail.
Over the years the LDS presidents have tried to steer a course away from the more obvious Masonic elements - witness the deletion of the Masonic oathes and penalties from the Mormon Temple Ceremony in 1990 - and are desperately trying now to be seen as "Christian". It is now even forbidden for a Mormon to say he is a member of the "Mormon Church" - he must say that he belongs to either the 'Church of Jesus Christ' or the 'Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints' ... though the LDS people themselves are still encouraged to call themselves 'Mormons'. Whilst such a move towards Christianity is commendable they will never have success so long as they are tied to the LDS 'Priesthood' and its countefeit scriptures which is the demonic power that still binds them. Let us never forget that when Joseph Smith appointed himself, and some others, a High Priest - which office belongs to Christ alone - that they were demonically attacked. From this blasphemy Joseph Smith moved to worse ones, even boasting shortly before his death that he had done a greater work than Christ in holding a church together, and claiming that He was God's "right-hand man". It is Christ who sits at the Father's right hand, not a mere mortal. As we observe Joseph Smith's unfolding life, therefore, we see the old satanic lie surfacing again and again, namely, that man is only a hair's breadth away from being like God Himself.
Today the LDS are distancing themselves as best they can from their neo-pantheistic legacy, though so long as they are tied to their priesthood, scriptures and history they will never succeed. Today's prophet is now saying that the well-known LDS couplet, "As man is, God once was; as God is, man shall one day become" is just that - nothing more than a couplet, possessing no doctrinal insights into the destiny of man.
The Independent Latter Day Saint experience saw us reject the 'priesthood authority' chains and that in turn liberated us from the worst of the Nefilim spirits. It is without doubt the foundation or Mormonism - not Jesus Christ. But in order to be completely free we were obliged to throw out almost everything else as well.
The Mormons want to become Christian but can't. The Reorganized Latter Day Saints (RLDS - since 6 April 2001 called the "Community of Christ") had the same desire but in order to do so had to rewrite history in such a way as not to undermine their own priesthood 'authority'. The result was that they undermined Christianity itself and ended up first as liberal Christians and then as virtual New Agers. The Mormons (LDS), however, are too conservative for that, though they are weakening in some areas by admitting limited abortion and have withdrawn the marriage oath and covenant requiring a woman to be obedient to her husband. One senses their desperate desire to be both accepted by Christianity and by the world (in their moves to be 'politically correct') whilst holding on to their original religious paradigm. This movement has created serious internal stresses that will ultimately lead to the orgtanisation's collapse. True Mormonism lies with the fundamentalists and - ultimately - with the Occultists. The modern Mormon Church is a mishmash of conflicting doctrinal concepts, ever changing and mutating, ever trying to find a path that will wash out that demonic element that refuse to admit exists which is nonetheless there plaguing them - unable to identify by revelation falsified historical documents like the Salamander Letter and the fake Joseph Smith III Blessing, unable to be PROPHETS at all. And since the whole tenor of LDS doctrines is following living prophets, the prophets who cannot prophesy, receive revelations or see visions must refine prophecy, revelation and seership much as those in the evangelical movement who don't have these things either, must invent a non-biblical doctrine that these things died off with the first apostles. The same methods of escape - the same excuses - are used by all cults and all false religions.
The truth still remains at the end of the day: the Mormon Church ('Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints') is not a prophetic church and is not led by prophets. The gift of prophecy is more in evidence amongst Pentecostals and other charismatics than amongst the Mormons! There is nothing unique to Mormon claims at all. More scripture? There are other churches who have scriptures, and New Covenant Christians have ten times as many scriptures as Mormons. Prophecy? That, as we have seen, is to all intents and purposes dead, and there are plenty of other Christians having these. Visions? The same. Revelations? Nothing for nearly a century. What of the sealed portion of the Book of Mormon? Most Mormons - and especially the hierarchy - I suspect, have given up on that. Besides another group claims to have brought that forth. Exclusive authority? Catholics, Eastern Orthodox and Jehovah's Witnesses claim that, with the Seventh Day Adventists hinting that they have it. Angel visits? Plenty of other groups who have claimed that. True teachings? Mormon doctrines have been in a constant state of mutation since Day #1 with their prophets contradicting each other. Tongues? One or two isolated cases of people claiming to speak foreign languages supernaturally, but the Pentecostals have been doing this for decades. Fantastic Church Growth? The Pentecostals (especially the Assemblies of God), Seventh Day Adventists and Jehovah's Witnesses (not to mention the Catholics) are outstripping them. Economic power? The Catholics have far more wealth than they do. More stable families? That might have been true 50 years ago but statistics now show that divorce rates in Utah, Mormonism's heartland, is slightly worse than the national US average. Cleaning living? Yes, but then so are millions of evangelical Christians.
As a last resort, Mormons attack Christianity's failures. And, yes, Christendom has an appalling record. However one person's faults does not by default make another clean. Each and every believer must stand or fall in his own merits. Churches are, in any case, merely gatherings or assemblies of people. Mormonism has its many unconfessed and unatoned for crimes like the Mountain Meadows Massacre, the Danite Bands, the throat-cutting of apostates, the non-recognition of state-sanctioned marriage, adultery, and forced polygamy.
So what, I ask, is so special - so unique about Mormonism that our attention should be excited? Does it have good in it? Of course it does. But so do other Christian denominations. Ultimately, as I have said so many times, Mormonism hangs on only one slender string - its claim to unique authority supposedly conferred by angels and resurrected men, the necessity for which can be clearly refuted by the Bible.
I was in a discussion with a Mormon the other day about the fact that Mormon teachings are not confirmed by the Bible. His reply to me sums up the Mormon position succinctly: the claims of Mormonism do not rest on the Bible but on modern prophets. And in that he is absolutely correct. Mormonism is not a biblical faith at all. Mormonism is the system of belief of the current prophet. Period. And the next prophet may not agree with him.
Faced with such a moving truth target it is little wonder that the more intelligent leave Mormonism, leaving the brainwashed behind. That masses of people would be deceived in the last days is prophesied in the New Testament though ironically the Mormons apply this prophecy to everyone else but themselves. Yet the facts remain: Mormonism is the religion of the current prophet because it is he who supposedly holds all the keys of the kingdom.
A concluding word - Mormons often apply the same truth criteria to us as they do to themselves, wrongly supposing that we claim to to be the "one and only true church" and that we are led by a prophet as they are. Both conclusions are in error. For New Covenant Christians the "true church" is that invisible organisation composed of all true believers in Christ irrespective of the Church they belong to. And we believe in being led by first apostles, and then prophets - with an -s at the end, as the New Testament rightly teaches. The New Covenant Church of God is not, in any case, a monolithic institution like the LDS Church - it is a living organism. So we reject all attempts by Mormons to judge us on the same terms as they expect others to judge them because we aren't making the same truth-claims. For us the only thing that ultimately matters is whether a person is in right relationship with Christ or not .. which church you have signed your name to is, in the salvational equation, utterly irrelevent.
This page was created on 8 July 1998
Updated on 9 March 2001
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