Do Better

Joseph Smith during March🏀…

Before I viewed JW apostate content, I would watch former Mormon videos. It was comments like this that I would go “oh yeah that’s a cult”. Then I’d pause for a second as the congestive dissonance drifted away from my body. It got harder & harder to ignore the similarities.

Jesus Christ is the only way to heaven. Salvation isn't found in Islam, Rabbinic Judaism, Mormonism, or Hinduism. It's found in Christ alone.

Youth sports organizations shouldn’t have games on Sunday mornings.

Some may not know this but in 1843, there were some gentlemen in Kinderhook, Illinois who wanted to see if Joseph Smith could really translate ancient records the way he said he could. These men would decide that they would make six small brass plates, then they randomly scratched in fake ancient writtings on them, buried them in an old mound, and then would act as if they had just discovered buried treasure. Most importantly they would make sure a Mormon was there to tell Joseph about all about it right away. As excepted the plates were then sent to him in Nauvoo. He decided to look at them and would end up saying he translated part of them. Joseph Smith's exact words were "I have translated a portion of them, and find they contain the history of the person with whom they were found. He was a descendant of Ham, through the loins of Pharaoh, king of Egypt, and that he received his kingdom from the ruler of heaven and earth." So from completely fake plates made to trick him, he ended up coming up with a whole ancient Egyptian family history and a divine kingdom story. Later those men would ultimately admit it was a hoax and tests in the 1980s would prove that the plates were indeed modern at his time. Ironically, even the LDS Church’s own magazine would eventually would say that it was a 19th century hoax and the LDS would officially state "...Chemical and metallurgical analysis of the one surviving plate confirms the artifact was not of ancient production. Moreover, the characters on the plates do not match any known language and were likely invented by Fugate and Wiley." For years people pointed to them as proof he could translate ancient things. After the facts came out, the LDS story would completely change and say things such as "he wasn’t really translating by revelation, he was just studying the characters." This is why we should be careful trusting any single person who claims exclusive new revelation or secret ancient records that only they can access and verify. The Bible warns us to test everything, to beware of false prophets who come in sheep's clothing and to hold fast to the faith that was once for all delivered to the saints. Catholics, Orthodox, and Protestants may differ on some points, but we all agree that the foundation of Christianity is Jesus Christ, His life, death, resurrection, and the teachings handed down through the apostles and not on one man's private translations that fail even the basic tests. When extraordinary claims like this don't hold up, it reminds every Christian to stay rooted in the Gospel we share and that is salvation through our Lord Jesus Christ.

I am not on the side of, "the church is stockpiling cash," in this discussion. I live the church's mission and focus. I would, however, like to point out that she did not answer the question. She reframed it to focus on the temple, which comes across as evasive and redirecting. It's that kind of verbal slight of hand that causes people to distrust what we say. A simple, straightforward answer would be better. "The chirch manages it's cashflow on a global scale to promote God's priorities. Which are to focus on bringing to pass the conversion and eternal salvation of mankind."

Few people on the planet know more about humanitarian aid than Sharon Eubank. Here she addresses: – Problems aren’t solved with cash – Sustainable impact requires infrastructure – Temple work is the greatest poverty alleviation system in the world