God extends covenants and mortals can either accept or
reject them.
The Book of Mormon is a covenant book which was preserved
by God to come forth in the last days in order to restore a covenant
people. It came forth by the power of
God through Joseph Smith, Jr. in 1830.
It may be surprising to LDS Mormons today that the early
Mormon converts never accepted the covenant offered by God through the Book of
Mormon. In fact, the early Saints were
put under condemnation by 1832 for not taking seriously the things offered to
them by God.
President Ezra Taft Benson reiterated that the Mormon
Saints were still under this condemnation in the 1980’s. In his LDS General
Conference address of April 1986 President Benson quoted from D&C 84:
“the Lord has stated in section 84 of the
Doctrine and Covenants that the whole Church is under condemnation: “And this
condemnation resteth upon the children of Zion, even all.” (D&C 84:56.) The
Lord continues: “And they shall remain under this condemnation until they
repent and remember the new covenant, even the Book of Mormon and the former
commandments which I have given them, not only to say, but to do according to
that which I have written.” (D&C
84:57.)
Raised Mormon during the time of President Benson this
talk was a bit shocking and confusing to me.
I had assumed that the LDS Church was founded on the Book of Mormon as
that was the book Joseph Smith had translated and which had begun the
Church. As I have learned more about LDS
Church History it has been surprising to me to discover that it took Hugh
Nibley campaigning in the 1960’s-1970’s before the leadership and membership of
the LDS Church began to take the Book of Mormon seriously.
Recently I was speaking with a man named Paul Durham
whose father was a leader in the Church Education Department (CES) in the
1960’s. This man’s father was told by an
Apostle of the LDS Church that because he believed in, loved and promoted the
reading of the Book of Mormon he would never rise up in the CES department. He
then went on to say that Hugh Nibley was tasked by the Lord to write Sunday
School lessons based on the Book of Mormon, until that time there had never
been any lessons based on this book.
Hugh would finish a lesson and send it in for approval and the lesson
would be denied. This happened over and
over again. Hugh became very frustrated
and took his frustrations to the Lord. The Lord assured him that he needed to
keep writing the lessons and that it would all be taken care of in time. A short while later the apostle who was
rejecting the lessons died and the apostle who took over chairing the lesson
committee went on to approve them.
I grew up reading, studying and loving the Book of
Mormon. I am grateful for it and for the
truths it has taught me. Yet, I had no
idea that it is a covenant book until just recently. In March 2017, I attended the Doctrine of
Christ Conference held in St. George, Utah.
During this conference it was put forth that the Lord was again ready to
extend a covenant to a repentant people as long as they re-established His word
through the scriptures. Thus, a
scripture project is underway to recover that which was lost through corruption
and outright disregard for God’s revealed word in order that the Lord might
once again offer a covenant to a repentant people.
“We are obligated to repent and return. We may not have created the
problem, but we cannot expect God to accomplish the work of what He commanded
for man to be do before. Others may have neglected it, but we cannot.
The
first step in repenting is to gather the original covenant we were offered in
the precise terms in which they were offered. That is a very difficult task
that many people have been working to accomplish for over a year. There are
lively efforts underway to research and find the right language.
Repentance
requires us to first learn the actual language in the terms God provided when
His restoration began. Our condemnation in 1832 was provoked by the failure to
both “say” and to “do” what was expected of us when He spoke again and
commenced the restoration.” Denver Snuffer Jr “Inquiry and
Response” March 30, 2017
Today, the LDS Church promotes the Book of Mormon as
“another Testament of Jesus Christ”. While
this is true (Jesus Christ is throughout the book), the Church does not teach
that the book is a covenant book. Even
President Benson, when he said the church was still under condemnation, did not
understand the exact nature of the condemnation. The LDS Church is under condemnation because
they have not remembered the new covenant, they have not even accepted the
covenant nor do they even know about it.
In Isaiah’s day he stated, “The earth also is defiled under the inhabitants thereof; because they have
transgressed the laws, changed the ordinance, broken the everlasting covenant.”
(Isaiah 24:5) The LDS Church today has
transgressed the laws, changed the ordinance and broken the everlasting
covenant.
Let’s look at just a few of the laws and ordinances
contained in the Book of Mormon which the LDS Church has broken:
1. Baptism:
Christ clearly sets out the words which are to be used for the baptismal
prayer: “And now behold, these are the words which ye shall say, calling them
by name, saying:Having authority given me of Jesus Christ, I baptize you in the
name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost. Amen.” (3 Nephi
11:24-25) In the 1830’s Oliver Cowdery changed the wording to “Having been
commissioned of Jesus Christ…” (D&C 20:73)
a. In 3
Nephi 11:22-23 Christ sets out his Doctrine clearly, “And he said unto them: On this wise shall ye baptize; and there shall
be no disputations among you. Verily I say unto you, that whoso repenteth of
his sins through your words, and desireth to be baptized in my name, on this
wise shall ye baptize them—Behold, ye shall go down and stand in the water, and
in my name shall ye baptize them.” Christ requires repentance and a desire
to be baptized. That’s it! Nothing more
and nothing less. In the LDS Church today in order to receive baptism one must agree to a list of demands such as
committing to paying tithes, bearing “testimony” of the current President of
the Church, etc.
b. Baptism
by immersion is always the fruit of repentance.[1] Whenever a person desires
to repent and turn to face God again baptism by immersion is a part of that
process. This practice was done often in the early days of the Church. Today it is taught that taking the Sacrament
each week renews your baptismal covenant.
The only way you can be rebaptized by immersion is if you have been
excommunicated from the Church and qualify yourself for baptism back into the
Church. In fact, if you desire to be rebaptized while still a member of the
Church after the manner practiced by early saints and as taught in the Book of
Mormon you can be excommunicated.
2. Sacrament:
Christ clearly sets out the emblems that should be used for the Sacrament in 3
Nephi 18: bread and wine. Bread in
remembrance of His body; Wine in remembrance of His blood. As if to reinforce the correct emblems, in 3
Nephi 20 Christ again performs the sacrament for the people, this time
providing the bread and wine miraculously.
Christ instructs the people that doing the sacrament with these emblems
is a commandment from the Father. In the
LDS Church today wine has been replaced with water and if a person desires to
partake of the sacrament in the way commanded by the Father they lose their
temple recommend at best, membership at worst.
Not only has the Church changed the emblems of the sacrament they have
also changed the words of the sacrament prayer from the word “wine” to the word
“water”.
3. Tithing:
Tithing is supposed to go to the poor and the needy, not for the building of
fine sanctuaries. (2 Nephi 28:13, 2 Nephi 13:14-15, 2 Nephi 20:2,30; 2 Nephi
26:20; Alma 1:27; Alma 5:55; 3 Nephi 13:1; Helaman 6:39; Helaman 4:12; Mormon
8:37) Tithing was not obligatory but
rather voluntary, it was based on how much money you had and the poor were
exempt from paying it: “And again Alma
commanded that the people of the church should impart of their substance, every
one according to that which he had; if he have more abundantly he should impart
more abundantly; and of him that had but little, but little should be required;
and to him that had not should be given. And thus they should impart of their
substance of their own free will and good desires towards God, and to those
priests that stood in need, yea, and to every needy, naked soul.” (Mosiah
18:27-28 as well as Mosiah 4:24,26; and Alma 1:27)
Today in the LDS Church
tithing is mandatory for a temple recommend and is 10% of your income, no
matter how much or how little money you earn, even if you cannot provide the
basic necessities for your family.
4. Marriage:
Jacob 2 clearly teaches that polygamy is an abomination in the eyes of God and
that no man should have more than one wife and that no woman should have more
than one husband. Yet in the LDS Church, polygamy began being practiced
secretly by Brigham Young and other members of the 12 and the Church. Joseph Smith was not a polygamous nor did he
teach the practice, however, as soon as Joseph died those secretly practicing
it began doing so openly and then spread false rumors and lies about learning
it from Joseph Smith Jr. The LDS Church has since abandoned the practice of
polygamy, however, they continue to besmirch the character of Joseph Smith and
many people in the Church believe that the practice of polygamy will be
reinstated one day because Brigham Young taught that it was necessary for
salvation in the highest degree of glory (Celestial Kingdom).
5. Priestcraft:
The Book of Mormon clearly teaches that there shall be no priesthcraft: “He commandeth that there shall be no
priestcrafts; for, behold, priestcrafts are that men preach and set themselves
up for a light unto the world, that they may get gain and praise of the world;
but they seek not the welfare of Zion.” (2 Nephi 26:29) “But behold, if a man shall come among you
and shall say: Do this, and there is no iniquity; do that and ye shall not
suffer; yea, he will say: Walk after the pride of your own hearts; yea, walk
after the pride of your eyes, and do whatsoever your heart desireth—and if a
man shall come among you and say this, ye will receive him, and say that he is
a prophet. Yea, ye will lift him up, and ye will give unto him of your
substance; ye will give unto him of your gold, and of your silver, and ye will
clothe him with costly apparel; and because he speaketh flattering words unto
you, and he saith that all is well, then ye will not find fault with him.”
(Helaman 13:27-28)
Those who labored to preach
repentance to the people as priests unto them were to also labor for their
substance: “And when the priests left
their labor to impart the word of God unto the people, the people also left
their labors to hear the word of God. And when the priest had imparted unto
them the word of God they all returned again diligently unto their labors; and
the priest, not esteeming himself above his hearers, for the preacher was no
better than the hearer, neither was the teacher any better than the learner;
and thus they were all equal, and they did all labor, every man according to
his strength.” Alma 1:26
King Benjamin said, “And even I, myself, have labored with mine
own hands that I might serve you, and that ye should not be laden with taxes,
and that there should nothing come upon you which was grievous to be borne—and
of all these things which I have spoken, ye yourselves are witnesses this day”
(Mosiah 2:14)
In the LDS Church today all
of the general leadership, as well as mission presidents, receive financial benefits
in addition to other “club” perks. It was recently reported that an LDS apostle
received a yearly salary of $120,000.[2] These men are seen as a
light to the world and they do not seek the welfare of Zion. By the Book of Mormon’s own definition priestcraft
is rampant in the LDS Church today.
These are just a few of the ways that the LDS Church,
which claims to have the fullness of the gospel, to believe in and follow the
teachings in the Book of Mormon, has corrupted the laws and ordinances in that
sacred book of scripture.
I believe in the Book of Mormon. I believe it means what it says. I desire to be considered by God a repentant
gentile and to enter into and strive to keep any covenants offered by Him
including the covenant of the Book of Mormon.
Denver Snuffer Jr stated: “But if even a tiny few gentiles are willing to accept the covenant, God
will receive them and accomplish His work through them. It was always the
Lord’s expectation that “few” would receive it and walk in a straight and
narrow path. Almost all others will reject it and walk in a broad enough path to
accommodate every other false religious idea, false promise, incomplete and
damning path that competes with the Lord’s invitation to come to Him. But if
even a few will accept it, those who do will become at that time part of the
covenant people of God, numbered with the remnant, and entitled to inherit this
as their land. In turn, God will protect them. If they abide the covenant, He
will establish a New Jerusalem, a land of peace, a city of refuge. His glory
and terror will be there, and the wicked will not come unto it.”[3]
