Doctrinal Flip-Flopping

During the recent campaigning and election, we heard the term "flip-flopping" used many times. The Church of Jesus Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints also uses the flip-flop method.

Since the time Joseph Smith started his "church," we were taught as Mormons when asked if we were Christians, to answer "no, we're not Christian, we're Mormon." However, today Mormons are taught to say, "Yes we're Christians, look at the name of our church." Thus implying that the name of their church makes them Christian.

Doctrine & Covenants 132:4 says that polygamy is an "everlasting covenant" and that those who don't obey are damned and can't go to the Celestial Kingdom. Everlasting means forever, so the covenant should still be in effect today. Mormons claim that polygamy was stopped in 1890 when President Wilford Woodruff gave his Official Declaration #1. However, on careful examination, the last and concluding sentence says, that this declaration was "advice" and not a commandment. There are many within the LDS church that still believe and practice polygamy. And this doesn't include the break-away groups that claim it also.

Mormonism teaches that when the last Apostle died, all authority was lost from the earth until Joseph Smith restored it in 1830. It is also taught that John, the Disciple never died and is walking the earth today. If this is true, then the authority was never lost from the earth, so Joseph Smith had nothing to restore. That makes him a false prophet.

One of the most obvious flip-flops was when Joseph Smith said the 1830 Book of Mormon "was the most correct of any book on earth" and that "a man would get nearer to God by abiding by its precepts, than any other book." When we compare the 1830 Book of Mormon to the edition they use today, we find that almost 4,000 changes have been made in "the most correct of any book on earth."

Mormons will say the only changes have been spelling and punctuation. Some of that did occur, but much of it was doctrinal changes. For example in 1 Nephi 11:18-21 & 32, the word Father has been changed into the word Son three different times. In Mormonism, the Father and the Son are two different gods, therefore this is a major flip-flop. There are many other changes of this nature. We have a book in our bookstore entitled "3,913 Changes in the Book of Mormon." This book is a photocopy of the 1830 edition with all the changes highlighted with each change noted.

Over a period of time, Joseph Smith taught that Zion or the New Jerusalem was established in several places. This New Jerusalem was also the original Garden of Eden and where Christ was to return, he said. The first official Zion was established in Kirtland, Ohio. Later, it was changed to Jackson County, Missouri, which included the major areas of Independence, Far West and Adam-ondi-Ahman, Missouri. When the Mormons were run out of these areas, Nauvoo, IL was then declared to be Zion. They have recently completed the total rebuilding of the temple there that was destroyed by fire and caused Brigham Young to take the followers to the Salt Lake Valley. It is my conviction that someday Zion will be officially moved to Salt Lake City and all those who have purchased property in Jackson County, Missouri, waiting for the return of Christ, will be out of luck.

This is because the property that Joseph Smith dedicated for the new temple to be built is owned by a break-off of the LDS church called, "Church of Christ, Temple Lot." I'm sure that they have no intentions of selling that property to the Mormons.

Until 1978, Mormonism taught that the blacks would never hold the priesthood or any leadership positions in the church until the second coming of Christ. Then in 1978, Spencer Kimball, then Prophet of the Mormon Church, claimed to have received a revelation from God that the blacks could now hold the priesthood, leadership positions and go to the temple. This created quite a stir among the Mormons who were aware of what was taught about the black's inability to have the priesthood. This also created another problem. Until 1981, the Book of Mormon said in 2 Nephi 30:6 that the dark skinned people would eventually become white and delightsome when they joined the Mormon Church. Nobody was turning white so the Mormon leaders had to rewrite those verses in the Book of Mormon. It now reads that the dark skinned people shall become a pure and delightsome people.

The Mormon Church has changed its name several times over the years. In the beginning it was called the Church of Christ, but it was confused with the real Church of Christ. So they changed their name to The Church of the Latterday Saints. Years later the leaders changed it to The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. Finally, to make it a complete deception, it is now called The Church of Jesus Christ. Thus continuing to deceive the general public into believing that Mormonism is Christian because they use the name of Jesus Christ. It really should be called the Church of Joseph Smith.

Many of the prophecies of Joseph Smith and Brigham Young, which many were everlasting prophecies, have been completely changed or totally denied and done away with. So the flip-flopping in Mormonism continues to occur.

As Christians, we know that God's word, the Bible, can be counted on as the final, infallible and unchanging word of God. So our job as Christians is to keep these lost people in our prayers every day. Join us in that endeavor.

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