Are Latter Day Saints, Saints?

Part 2 of 7 Cults, Occult And World Religions

Introduction

Officially known as The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, Mormonism was founded by Joseph Smith Jr. in 1830.  Their headquarters is in Salt Lake City, Utah – a state that is now 70% Mormon.  They claim to now have over 11 million members worldwide, almost half of whom live inside the United States.

They are represented by over 60,000 missionaries in 162 countries in 102 languages.  Each of these missionaries have gone through 3-9 weeks of intensive training at the 26 acre Missionary Training Center located in Provo, Utah, which receives 500 new missionaries a week.  All boys, once they turn 19 are expected to dedicate two years of their life to missionary service. Over $500 million a year is spent on recruiting which reaps more than 300,000 new converts every year.  Many of these (75.3%) claim they were already members of a Christian church before joining Mormonism.

Mormons have more than 100 temples worldwide which are not used for worship.  Temples are required for Mormon marriages and for proxy baptisms of ancestors.  Only secret, occult rituals for the living and the dead are performed there for the purpose of gaining eternal life.

Unlike most churches, the LDS does not give out a financial statement, even to its own members.  However, an April 4, 1997 Time Magazine article gave the following financial details:

“The church’s material triumphs rival even its evangelical advances.  With unusual cooperation from the Latter-day Saints hierarchy (which provided some financial figures and a rare look at church businesses), TIME has been able to qualify the church’s extraordinary financial vibrancy.  It’s current assets total a minimum of $30 billion.  If it were a corporation, its estimated $5.9 billion in annual gross income would place it midway through the FORTUNE 500, a little below Union Carbide and the Paine Webber Group but bigger than Nike and the Gap.”

The LDS also collect at least another $6 billion a year in tithes and offerings from its members.  At least 100 companies are controlled by the Mormons, and some estimate its total annual revenue is in excess of $20 billion!  The LDS owns 18 radio stations in the U.S. as well as schools, seminaries, clothing mills, insurance companies, and department stores.

Mormons have two official publications, Church News, a weekly 16-page newspaper, and the Ensign, a monthly magazine.  They have four books of Scripture: the Bible, the Book of Mormon: Another Testament of Jesus Christ, the Doctrine and Covenants and the Pearl of Great Price.

Tonight we will examine three teachings of Mormonism and see what the Bible says about them. Their Beliefs Concerning The Church Their Beliefs Concerning God Their belief concerning Scripture.