Prove It

I've been blasted with Anti-Mormon material before. I've read into the arguments of Atheists. I've heard Baptists and Pentecostals and others interpret interesting things out of the Bible. All of it would have me doubt all the claims my church makes and think that they're all unsubstantiated.

I'm human. I've let the doubts creep in. I've also had to forcibly banish the doubts away. Satan tries to twist the things I know most often when I read the Book of Mormon. I'll come across something like 1 Nephi 1:3

"And I know that the record which I make is true..."

"I summarized 1,000 years of history,
and it is true."

"Well of course Joseph Smith would put that in if he was trying to convince everyone that the Book of Mormon is true," Satan says.

Not wanting to let that sit, I argue back, "Well Nephi being a prophet and knowing we would doubt his record obviously felt the need to testify that his own words were true."

"That doesn't prove it true."

"That doesn't prove it false either."

And so these statements of prophets testifying of the Book of Mormon's validity sat funny in my head. I set them aside and moved on, as you do with things you don't understand yet.

The Dark Knight of Apostasy

Shining, happy city...

Apostasy: (a) Distortion or rejection of truth. (b) Loss or absence of Priesthood Authority

Once upon a time in Gotham City, an honorable police force guarded the city. The citizens lived peacefully knowing that they would protect and uphold the law. They had power given to them from on high, otherwise known as the State. They maintained that authority by living the law that they swore to uphold.

Then, the 1920's came around. With the Prohibition of alcohol and other spirits, criminals organized themselves into gangs and mafias. Despite the Gotham City Police Department's efforts to prevent the sale and smuggling of liquor, the crime families became too strong for them to be effectively removed from the city. With little resources and growing opposition, the police and Feds fought a losing battle.

Lost in the fog and gloom...

The Nation did away with the Prohibition Act, but the damage was done. The Mafia put their own system into place within the GCPD, this time with officers receiving bribes and the honorable ones occasionally disappearing in the night only to be found a few days later in the river. Crime spread and became the norm for Gotham. Within a decade, this shining city turned to rust and decay.

What police force they had by the late 20th century, was a joke. This became all too apparent to young Bruce Wayne as he watched Joe Chill, a small time thief, shoot and kill his parents in front of him. The injustice and corruption in the city had gone too far, and he determined that something had to be done by someone. Coincidentally, the vigilante Batman burst onto the Gotham scene when he grew old enough to change the world.

Pow!

This Dark Knight watched over and protected Gotham, opposed on both sides for the good he did and because he went about doing so in the wrong way. Even though Batman took down crime rings, halted super-villains in their tracks, and saved Gotham from utter destruction now and again, he had no authority given to him by The State to play Judge, Jury, Police Officer, Lawmaker, and Animal Control. As a vigilante, he was a criminal himself.

The only way for Gotham to return to its original light and glory is to completely overhaul the system and restore the GCPD to its original integrity by the Governor of The State. His chosen representative(s) would fire the bad cops and call the good cops to higher, nobler positions. Then the citizens of Gotham can live happier safe lives.

We in the real world do not have to wait for such a day to come. After centuries of darkness following the death of Christ's apostles, priesthood authority has been restored to the earth by our loving Heavenly Father. Original gospel truths, once lost due to Apostasy, have been given to us through modern revelation and the Book of Mormon.

I invite everyone, member and investigator alike, to read the Book of Mormon, ponder the message it contains, and to ask God in prayer if it is true. I know that the Holy Ghost will testify to you that it is true, and help strengthen your testimony in our Savior Jesus Christ.

Why Do Some People Call the LDS Church a Cult?

The Short Answer: As Hitler said, if you're going to tell a lie, you have to make it huge to make it believable.

The Long Answer: Let me illustrate this with an example I learned from my advertising class. This particular company will remain anonymous as I can't remember what it's name was.

Once upon a time, there was an unsuspecting baby food company that only wanted to fill babies tummies with delicious fruits and veggies. Then one day, some person made the claim that this company worshiped Satan. How outlandish! They claimed that this company put Satanic figures in its logo, poisoned babies, summoned spirits, and did all sorts of horrible, nasty stuff. All of it quite obviously untrue.

For some strange reason, this caught the public's attention. The accusations were so far from the expected, that maybe they were right. I mean, no one would make this sort of claim without something to back it up. And so, the Satanic image of this baby food company spread like a disease and their sales plummeted.

Naturally, the company didn't stand back and just let it happen. They fought back with advertising campaigns to correct the misinformation and by charging the people responsible for spreading the lies. Unfortunately, when one person got charged with libel, someone else took up the cause and continued spreading the lies.

Eventually, this company realized it couldn't fight stupid, and it gave up. It changed its logo, apologized for hypnotizing babies, and promised never to worship Satan again. Basically. The company survived and eventually the rumors died away as most lies do.

"No, I'm LDS!"

Sometimes you just can't escape a negative image, no matter how hard you try, and so you have to go with it. For instance, we were called, "Mormons," as a derogatory term. And no matter how hard we try to say, "No, we're Latter-day Saints! We're LDS!" the term is already stuck. So we just embrace it, and now we have the lovely I'm a Mormon campaign, backed up by the, "It's just a nickname for our church, I'm really a Latter-day Saint," initiative to keep Elder Ballard happy.

The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints is not a cult. That is a lie created so that people who don't like the church have a reason to hate it. I don't know of any other cult that is so secretive that it sends out thousands of missionaries to bug you and tell you all about it. We don't murder people, we encourage you to tell your friends and family that you're joining our church, and all of our doctrine is publicly available here and here. You can also read a bunch of statements from lots of other Latter-day Saints on how the Church is not a cult here.

Unlike the aforementioned baby food company, the Church will not back down or surrender to the negative accusations thrown at us. No matter how clunky the name sounds in our mouths when we try to say it quickly, we will always belong to the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. No matter how much the world thinks we're strange, outdated, or peculiar, we will not change our doctrine.Christ gave it to us, and we will stick to it.

And remember: sacrificing babies is wrong.