Religion Series Mormons Part One

Well it has been a few days since I said I would be posting this but since I don't think there were too many of you just itching to read it I didn't think there would be an uproar so I thought I wouldent offend by holding off on it. I have been a little sick the last few days and a little busy. So for the second religion in the religion series mormons. You may also know them by the name The Church of Jesus Christ of The Latter Day Saints. So who are these people? What exactly do they believe? You may have seen commercials by them on the television. They sometimes talk about the bible sometimes they also talk about their book The book of mormon. I think a good place to start with this one is how they got started and how they got their book. The following excerpt is from the Mormon website. Here is the link of the website itself incase you wish to visit it. www.mormon.org  

History of the Church

In the spring of 1820, a 14 year old boy named joseph smith went into a grove of trees near his home in Palmyra, New York, and prayed to learn which church he should join. In answer to his prayer, God the Father and His Son,Jesus Christ, appeared to him, just as heavenly beings had appeared to prophets like Moses and Paul in biblical times. Joseph learned that the Church originally organized by Jesus Christ was no longer on the earth.

Joseph Smith was chosen by God to restore the Church of Jesus Christ to the earth. During the next 10 years,Joseph was visited by other heavenly messangers,translated the Book of Mormon, and received authority to organize the Church. The Church was organized in Fayette,New York, on 6 April 1830, under the leadership of Joseph Smith. It has grown to an organization with members and congregations throughout the world.

So this is their history in their own words. It is quite vage quite short and doesn't invovle too many specifics. When I was navigating their website it seemed that they made an effort to at every turn encourage you to meet with a mormon to get more answers. They don't seem to want to divulge too much info on their website. And certainly they woulden't mention any of their beliefs that are controversial. I found another website out there on the web called Mormons In Transition. It is a website that breaks down the mormons history the falsehoods that are within the organization and what they really believe and practice. They are a large amount of failed prophecies. Often a way that religions try to explain away false prophecies are that they were humans who made the prophecies and humans are fallible. Well that is not a good way to put it. It does not really go with the notion that these organizations all claim to be the one true one. If they are the true one then would not their prophecies come true? Would not the God they worship make sure things concerning the future of his people were made clear?

I think I will leave it at that for today. Tommorrow I would like to look at contradictions between the book of mormon and the bible. Some of the false prohecies and just how exactly the book of mormon came about. And some of those hidden beliefs that the mormons hold aswell.

The website Mormons In Transition can be found at a website called The Institute For Religious Research. The link for that website is www.irr.org