Clarifying 200 years of continuous “intentional” misunderstandings.
The devil and his team of liars and deceivers have been deliberately spreading false slander against “The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints” for almost 200 years – – – because it truly is The Church of Jesus Christ led by Jesus Christ Himself through living prophets and apostles, and the devil hates our Church more than any other for that very reason. Please pause to remember that back in the days when Jesus Christ and His apostles were on earth, the devil and his team also worked hard to get other Bible-believing churches/groups to start spreading negative false slander and thus inciting persecution against The Church of Jesus Christ. When I refer to the devil and his team spreading false slander, I include both those who intentionally tell lies and those who slander against us knowing it is not true; And also those who do so out of ignorance, without realizing it’s false slander, because they’ve just believed it from others, who believed it from others. When lies are told over and over again for a long enough time, many people begin to believe them, without even checking the facts for themselves, which is definitely the case in this case.
Sadly, the devil has even found ways to make most Christian churches and pastors ignorantly believe the false slander against our Church, with little or no understanding of what we truly teach and believe. Many of them actively try to persecute and spread lies against us, members of The Church of Jesus Christ, as fellow Christians. I believe that most Christians who now assist the devil and his team in spreading false slander actually believe it so much that they believe they are doing something truly good by trying to scare people away from reviewing “The Book of Mormon, Another Testament of Jesus Christ,” and what it, our missionaries, and the Church actually teach. This is very similar to how Saul of Taurus, who believed in the Bible but not in Jesus Christ as the promised Messiah or in His Church and its teachings, was ignorantly convinced that he was doing something very good by persecuting members of the Church of Jesus Christ.
The vast majority of those spreading false slander have never read the Book of Mormon, or at least not all of it with an open mind or a prayerful heart, or there is no way they can come to the ridiculous conclusion that it is evil, as they teach. It would be truly good if they would read the Book of Mormon prayerfully and with an open mind before they begin spreading false slander against it and against the 75,000 missionaries and the millions of faithful, caring, active Bible-believing members of our Church who truly accept Jesus Christ as our Savior.
In recent years, our church leaders and members have been trying even harder to respectfully ask the media and everyone else to please refer to us by what has always been our church’s real name, but most Christians still refuse to do so and call Mormons in derogatory and disrespectful ways. They don’t want to refer to us by our church’s real name because that would make it much harder for them to convince others of the negative, false rumors that we are not Christians. Our church is the fourth-largest Christian church in the United States, and we have about 17 million members worldwide. For us Christians of different denominations, I believe it’s important for us to get to know each other better and learn to work better together by supporting good and righteous causes, with more respect, unity, and teamwork. There is much good we can accomplish together, solving the world’s problems, and leading more of God’s children to love the Bible and have a deeper relationship with our Heavenly Father and His Son, Jesus Christ, as our Savior. I fasted and prayed to decide whether to include this article on my website. I knew this would be very controversial, and that many Christian pastors and those they have taught would try to discourage people from joining or starting any Christ-centered sports and games teams, which is why I belong to the Christian church. However, as I prayed about it, I felt convicted that God specifically wanted me to include this on my website.
I think it’s important that we clear up nearly 200 years of “intentional” negative rumors against our Church, which continue to be ignorantly spread by those who don’t understand us. I invite you to try to understand what we truly believe and who we are, instead of relying on the false negative slander that has been spread against us.
“But Charles, considering that your goal is to help people choose to focus on building and maintaining good relationships with God, with themselves, with their families, and with each other, why are you trying to clear up 200 years of misunderstandings caused by false negative rumors on your website? Pause to consider how we, as fellow Christians, can build good, trusting relationships with each other if one party has been taught for some 200 years to believe an enormous variety of false negative rumors against us, and has been taught to avoid all contact with us as if we were the worst plague?”
“But Charles, don’t you understand that the anti-Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints slanderers never, ever want to allow you or any member of your Church to present true facts, which are clearly very different from their false slanders? – – – Oh yes, I clearly understand that, but is it fair or right that we should never be allowed to present the true facts about what our Church really teaches, believes, and is? Will the readers be respectful and kind enough to allow me to present some of the real facts for your open-minded consideration?”
Out of mutual respect and as fellow Christians, I suggest we begin by focusing on some of the many beautiful things and principles we share in common, such as the following points:
1. We prayerfully study and deeply love the same Bible, as other Christians do. And no, it is not a “different Bible,” as many misinformed slanderers teach, knowing very little true information about us and our teachings. In English-speaking countries around the world, we use the King James Version of the Bible, which is by far the most widely used English-language Bible among Christians.
2. We deeply love and trust Jesus Christ as our Savior, as you do – – – and no, He is definitely not a “different Jesus,” as the slanderers have been teaching. For anyone interested in real facts, it is easy to observe them in the lives of our converts and active members; that they become kinder, more loving, and more devoted followers of Jesus Christ in their actions and words after joining our Church than before. Most of the converts to our Church I have met throughout my life were already Bible-believing Christians before they were converted. Does it really make sense that of the approximately 20,000 people who join our Church each month, suddenly, on the very day they are baptized, all begin to believe in and follow a “different Jesus,” even though they continue to use and love the same Bible?
Like you, we recognize that none of us can “work” our way to Heaven on our own merit. We are all imperfect, and we all desperately need Jesus Christ as our Savior. As the Book of Mormon prophet Nephi clearly taught in 2 Nephi 2:23, “For we do labor diligently to write, to persuade our children, and also our brethren, to believe in Christ, and to be reconciled unto God; for we know that it is of grace we are saved, after all that we can do.” – – – which is very different from what false slanderers say about us.
3. When we pray to our Heavenly Father and seek to follow the teachings of Jesus Christ in the Bible to the best of our ability, like other Christians, we receive the same uplifting spiritual gifts of love, joy, and inner peace that surpass all understanding from the same heavenly source as described in the Bible in scriptures such as Galatians 5:22: “The fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, and faithfulness,” and Philippians 4:6-7: “In everything, by prayer and supplication, with thanksgiving, let your requests be made known to God. And the peace of God, which surpasses all understanding, will guard your hearts and minds in Christ Jesus.” I know for certain that the love, joy, and inner peace that surpasses all understanding come from the same heavenly source for us as they do for you, the other committed Christians. The devil and his team can give money and everything else money can buy, but they don’t have true love, joy, inner peace that surpasses all understanding, gentleness, kindness, or positive, heartfelt faith in Jesus Christ as our beloved Savior to give it to anyone. After getting to know me a little, up to this point, do you really believe that I and millions of people in our church, who are very similar to me and the Osmond family, believe in a different Jesus? And that we receive our inner peace, love, joy, guidance, strength to resist the devil’s temptations, etc. from a different source than the one described and whose words and teachings you and I read in the same Bible? Please don’t fall for that lie of the slanderers, that we believe in a different Jesus Christ, because it is very easy for any open-minded person to do a little research to discover that this is definitely not true. Why do they spread such false and easily proven slander?
4. We are taught to have Jesus Christ and His joy- and love-producing teachings as the central focus of our lives – – – just as other Christians are. We study the same teachings and stories of Jesus Christ in the Bible that you do, the same beautiful stories of His life, His same Sermon on the Mount, parables, commandments, etc. that Christians of other Christian denominations study. These beautiful teachings bring the same beautiful and uplifting Spirit of God into our homes, lives, and relationships as they do with other Christians of different denominations who study the same Bible and love the same Jesus Christ as their Savior that we do.
5. Like you, we recognize that the two most important commandments of Jesus Christ are to love and serve God and to love and serve our families and our fellow human beings, as Jesus taught.
“Jesus said to him, ‘You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your mind. This is the first and great commandment. And the second is like it, ‘You shall love your neighbor as yourself.’ On these two commandments hang all the Law and the Prophets.” Matthew 22:37-40 If there has ever been a member of our church who did not show love and kindness in their interactions with you, they clearly were not following the teachings of our Church and the Bible that day, which we believe and encourage our members to follow. Of course, as in all Christian denominations, there are some members of our Church who are registered members only and, for various reasons, are not very motivated at this time to focus on following the beautiful teachings of Jesus Christ as taught in the Bible and in our Church.
6. The central mission of our Church, like that of many of you in other Christian churches, is to bring as many people as possible into a joyful and trusting relationship with Jesus Christ and his joy-producing teachings. That is why we have approximately 75,000 of our young volunteers teaching the joy- and love-producing teachings of Jesus Christ full-time, and testifying of Jesus Christ as our Savior. If you choose to meet some of them, you will quickly learn that they are good, not bad, and that they share strong testimonies of the Bible and of Jesus Christ as our Savior.
7. When we pray and are very observant, we can all sense and feel the difference between right and wrong, good and evil, kindness and meanness, truth and error, respect and disrespect—all of which are just a few of the things we do. Isn’t that true? Some people call it our conscience, and in The Book of Mormon, it is referred to as “The Light of Christ.” It is our built-in inner guidance system from God. That inner guidance system from the Light of Christ can become very dim and almost nonexistent when people choose to reject its guidance time and time again. But when any Child of God follows the guidance system of the inner Light of Christ, it brings them closer to God and blesses their lives in joyful ways.
Any child of God anywhere in the world can experiment with this amazing inner guidance system that our loving Heavenly Father gave to each of us, God’s children on earth. You can also ask other people who are not yet Christians if they are also blessed with greater love, joy, inner peace, etc. when they choose to do something good, kind, or right—or if only Christians have this inner guidance system (conscience).
God and His Son, Jesus Christ; love every child of God, or simply those who have already accepted Jesus Christ as their Savior? – – – Hint: Remember when Jesus was suffering horribly on the cross, after being mocked, severely flogged, and nailed to the cross by non-Christians? He prayed, “Father, forgive them for they know not what they do.”
Isn’t that clear proof of the truth of the beautiful Christian song, “Jesus loves me, this I know, because the Bible tells me so”? Don’t that verse and many other Bible verses clearly prove that our Heavenly Father and Jesus Christ love every child of God more than we can comprehend, even when we make mistakes and bad choices? – – and even though we belong to several different Christian churches, and even those who are not yet Christians, and those who may not even believe in God yet.
If you wish, you can conduct your own little survey about the inner guidance system of the Light of Christ with which every child of God is blessed. Simply ask yourself, people of different Christian faiths, and even non-Christians:
When you choose to do something that is kind, good, right, respectful, and of loving service toward others, what do you feel deep inside? Do you feel greater joy, love, inner peace, etc. as God has promised in the Bible in Galatians 5:22 and other places? Do you think it may be an inner guidance system from God to encourage us to do more acts of kindness and love toward others? Or, why do you think we feel that greater love, joy, and inner peace when any of us choose to do acts of kindness toward others? Isn’t that what God rewards us with or pays us for doing acts of kindness toward any of His other children?
What do the devil and his team reward or pay with when God’s children do what the devil and his team want them to do? Nothing of real value, that’s for sure. Do the devil and his team have any of these truly precious gifts of true love, joy, and inner peace to give or pay for? Or do they only have the cheap rewards of those little green pieces of paper (100-dollar bills) and things that money can buy, like worldly riches, power, worldly pleasures, etc., which have no lasting value and bring them benefits? Is there no true love, joy, or inner peace in our short time on earth or beyond?
Isn’t it true that when a child of God chooses to do their best to follow the inner spiritual guidance of the “Light of Christ” (the conscience), they are blessed with greater light and joy in their countenance? It is a light that cannot be hidden, even if we wanted to. We can see and feel that inner light, joy, and love in those who choose to follow that inner spiritual guidance system from God, even if they don’t yet recognize that guidance system as coming from God. I suggest that we all learn to deeply appreciate that light and any goodness and kindness in others, whether we belong to a different religion or even have no religion or faith in God at all.
I love what Jesus Christ himself taught us in the Bible, regarding how we can know who his true followers are, when he taught the following:
“A new commandment I give to you: Love one another; as I have loved you, that you also love one another. By this all will know that you are My disciples, if you have love for one another.” Bible: John 13:34-35
Jesus taught more about how we can know who is on his team as his followers:
“You will know them by their fruits. Do people gather grapes from thornbushes, or figs from thistles? In the same way, every good tree bears good fruit, but a corrupt tree bears corrupt fruit. A good tree cannot bear corrupt fruit, nor can a corrupt tree bear good fruit. Every tree that does not bear good fruit is cut down and thrown into the fire. So you will know them by their fruits. Not everyone who says to me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ will enter the kingdom of heaven, but only the one who does the will of my Father who is in heaven.” Bible: Matthew 7:16-21
Wouldn’t it be wonderful if all of us Christians of various denominations would follow what Jesus Christ taught about how we can know who are true disciples and followers of Jesus Christ and who are not, as we meet Christians of various denominations with an open mind, and see if they love one another, and if their fruits are good or bad – – – instead of being carried away by 200 years of false negative heresies started and continued by the devil and his crew?
I am not saying that Christian pastors are evil, that they spread the false slander they were taught against us in their Bible schools by those who were also taught the same false heresy in Bible school about our Church and our people being evil and how the Book of Mormon is evil and to be avoided like the plague. I believe that most of those pastors have good intentions, but are completely misinformed and have obviously never read the Book of Mormon, or at least not with an open mind and prayerful heart, or they could never come to the ridiculous and false conclusion that it is evil – – – when it has led so many millions of us Christians to a deeper love for the Bible, and an even deeper love for Jesus Christ as our Savior, and a stronger desire to follow its teachings.
One of the most internationally known families in our church is the Osmond family, including Donny and Marie Osmond, who have been blessed with an extended and very loving family, much like millions of others in our church, whose greatest focus and priority is to love and serve God, their families, and others, as we are taught to do in the Bible and in our Church. They are blessed with loving and trusting family relationships because they love Jesus Christ as their Savior and make their best efforts to follow His teachings in all they do. There have been many false negative rumors started by the devil for nearly 200 years since our church was organized in 1830, incorrectly labeling our missionaries, members, and the Book of Mormon as evil. However, now that we number around 17 million worldwide, and active members of our church, who follow our teachings, have much “love one another,” It has made it much harder for those spreading false rumors against us to convince others that we are all evil, and not Bible-believing Christians or true followers of Jesus Christ, and that therefore we will all be sent to suffer forever in hell by our loving and just Heavenly Father!! – – – which, of course, makes no sense to anyone who follows their inner guidance system from the Light of Christ, or who decides to check out what our Church and missionaries really teach and are.
Jesus also taught, “If you keep my commandments, you will abide in my love, just as I have kept my Father’s commandments and abide in his love.” Bible: John 15:10 Our active members of our church, who follow what is taught in our Church and the Bible; make daily efforts to stay close to our Heavenly Father and our Savior Jesus Christ in prayer, keeping His commandments, and sharing God’s love with others. In my opinion, a Christian is anyone who chooses to follow Jesus Christ and His commandments/teachings, including accepting Jesus Christ as our Savior. Anyone who knows some of our active members and teachings well, and does not avoid us like the plague, will know that the active members of our Church are definitely committed and faithful Christians.
I hope you don’t mind if I try to clear up almost 200 years of false misunderstandings about our Christian church in this chapter. A living apostle of Jesus Christ today, M. Russell Ballard, wrote a great book titled “Our Pursuit of Happiness: An Invitation to Understand the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.” It would be a great short, very easy-to-understand book, along with The Book of Mormon, to read for anyone who might be interested in trying to understand what we really believe, rather than simply relying on 200 years of false, negative rumors against us. Yes, I realize that many of you have been told that we are not even Christians as members of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints and that therefore we will all be sent by our loving and just Heavenly Father to suffer forever in Hell, but that couldn’t be further from the truth, and of course, it also doesn’t make sense, does it? Would our loving Savior really send all 17 million members of our Church to suffer forever in Hell, just because so many anti-Church slanderers say we will or should be sent there? Read on as I try to help you better understand us and our actual teachings.
Most of you have probably seen the Christian cards that many Christian churches hand out, which tell us that if we simply say a certain prayer accepting Jesus Christ as our Savior on our deathbed or sooner, and asking to be forgiven, that you will be “saved” and go to Heaven to receive your ultimate reward—just as they say the thief on the cross did beside Jesus. The active members of our church have definitely accepted Jesus Christ as our Savior, have asked to be forgiven, love the Bible, and try to follow it; so, according to what they teach on the gift cards, our active members would, of course, be saved and go to Heaven, wouldn’t they? Yet, most of them ignorantly teach what they were taught in Bible school: that we worship a different Jesus and therefore our loving and just Heavenly Father will send us all to suffer forever in hell. Isn’t it God who instills in us as parents the desire to be fair and kind to each of our own children? Isn’t that clear proof that God will be fair to all of us, as his children, and not just punish the 17 million of us forever in hell because some Christian pastors, who know very little fact about us, teach that we believe in a different Jesus, even though we use the same Bible? Isn’t God even more loving than we are, which is proof that he will be at least as fair and loving as we would be to our own children?
Like the Apostle Paul, I am not ashamed of the gospel of Jesus Christ, and I am definitely not at all ashamed of being a member of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. In fact, I am very humbly proud to be a member because of the beautiful teachings of Jesus Christ taught in our Church, which I and millions of others believe matches the Bible better than any other Church, and which is completely different from the nearly 200 years of false rumors that others claim we teach and are. Millions have joined our Church because they knew members of our Church and began to wonder what our Church and our people really believe and teach, because the horrible false rumors about our Church and our people simply do not match the lies that have been spread against us, which are completely opposite to the real truth.
I decided that like the Apostle Paul, I should not be ashamed to let everyone know that I am a devout follower of Jesus Christ and the Bible, and a devoted member of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. I am also convinced that there are some very powerful quotes in the Book of Mormon and our other two books of scripture, the Doctrine and Covenants and the Pearl of Great Price, that powerfully help to support the Bible and Jesus Christ as our Savior, and His beautiful teachings.
One of my all-time favorite and most important topics is the beautiful teachings on my website on the subject: “God’s Plan of Happiness/Salvation versus a Heaven and Hell Plan for the Eternal Future of All of God’s Children.” And I simply cannot teach those beautiful principles very well without making it clear that we believe God has revealed additional beautiful truths to us through modern-day prophets and apostles in these latter days to clear up some major confusions that made God sound like a not-very-just, fair, or loving Heavenly Father—like the One Heaven and One Hell concept, which I am convinced was never taught by Jesus or any of His apostles or prophets in Bible times, but began to be taught a couple of hundred years later after Jesus and all of His apostles were martyred/killed. Please finish reading this and the article on my website about God’s Plan of Happiness, and you will begin to deeply understand and appreciate how truly loving and just our Heavenly Father and His Son, Jesus Christ, are. For example, they won’t send anyone to hell forever just because they didn’t have much opportunity to learn about Jesus Christ before they die. Everyone will be given ample opportunity to learn clearly and lovingly about Jesus Christ and to accept Him as their Savior after they leave this life, as many Bible verses and the common sense God has given us make clear.
The fact is that many millions of intelligent and strongly committed Christians, like my dear wife and I, and the Osmond family, and millions of other active members of our church, would rather be whipped and beaten to death by a mob than ever deny our testimony of the Bible and of Jesus Christ as our Savior, and of the “Book of Mormon, Another Testament of Jesus Christ.” And there are also many millions of Christians in several different Christian denominations, who have never read the Book of Mormon; but even though they have never read it, they believe it is evil and that our young missionaries are bad and should be avoided like the worst plague – – – because of almost 200 years of false negative rumors.
Isn’t it time for all intelligent seekers after truth to find out what we really believe and what the Book of Mormon really teaches, instead of being afraid to read it because of the fear that has been imposed upon them by the devil and his team of deceivers? – – – Especially now that it is the sixth most read book in the history of the world!! And how did it become the sixth most read book in the history of the world, with over 193 million copies in print in at least 115 languages? – – – for exactly the same reason that the Bible became the number one most read book in the world, because both books have had such a positive and powerful influence and motivation for good and have brought true joy and inner peace into the lives of many millions of God’s children to help draw them closer to God and His Son, Jesus Christ, and to help make all their most important relationships more joyful, thankful, trusting, loving, etc.
Questions to Ponder: If the Book of Mormon has had such power for good in so many millions of lives, why are so many Christian pastors and their followers teaching that it is so evil that it should be avoided like the plague? – – – In short, because they have never read it – – or, at least not with an open mind and a prayerful heart, due to nearly 200 years of false negative slander against it by the devil and his team. Why do the devil and his team hate the Bible and the Book of Mormon so much? – – because of its power to do good and draw us closer to God and His Son, Jesus Christ.
Our Church typically has around 200,000 to 300,000 new converts baptized each year because a large percentage of those who dare to go against peer pressure and decide to find out what our Church really teaches. Then, they study and pray to God about what we truly believe and teach, and they end up loving the beautiful and uplifting teachings. In one year alone, in 1977, because the Donny and Marie Osmond family were so well known as a truly loving, Bible-believing Christian family who loved Jesus Christ as their Savior, over 28,000 converts were baptized into our Church that year. These were people who, because of the Osmond family, decided to check out what our Church and the Book of Mormon really teach and are, instead of simply trusting the false negative rumors and avoiding all the supposedly evil members of our Church. The entire Osmond family of musicians was so well respected as a wonderful and loving Christian family, that it became difficult for the false slander spreaders of the Anti-Church of Jesus Christ, to keep God’s children from being curious to discover what we truly believe and teach, instead of simply relying on 200 years of negative false rumors. The Osmond family frequently held free gatherings after their concerts in different parts of the world, to share their faith in the Bible and the Book of Mormon, and in Jesus Christ, as our Savior, and in God’s loving and righteous Plan of Happiness. You can read about them in another article on my website and about our other beautiful teachings that bring so much joy and love to families and relationships with God, with oneself, with family members and with each other.
If someone told you that they believed all members of the extended Osmond family were evil and that our loving and just Heavenly Father would send them all to hell to suffer forever, would that seem reasonable and true to you? Do you realize that there are literally millions of members of our church who are very similar to Donny and Marie Osmond and their family? Not in how they treat their family members and others with kindness, respect, honesty, genuineness, integrity, love, etc. Not in having the amazing musical abilities that the Osmond family has. Any member of our church, who lives by the teachings of our Church and the Bible that we love and study wholeheartedly, is very similar to the Osmond family. If Donny and Marie Osmond came to your door to share with you a beautiful message about Jesus Christ and the Bible, would you let them in, treat them with respect, and at least listen to their message? Do you realize that our beloved sons, daughters, and grandchildren are among the more than 70,000 current young missionaries of our church, who have chosen to sacrifice two years of their precious lives to share the joyful teachings of Jesus Christ at your expense? These young men and women are remarkably similar to Donny and Marie Osmond and their family? So please, at least treat them with kindness and respect, and listen to what they really teach, instead of relying on 200 years of false rumors.
You might be thinking that your pastor wouldn’t want you to even read this to find out what we really believe, because as you know, in many Christian churches, they occasionally have an Anti-Church of Jesus Christ Day to try to convince their members to remain isolated from us and our supposedly “evil” missionaries and the Book of Mormon. The pastors themselves, through many negative and false rumors in their Bible colleges, were taught to keep themselves and their people isolated from the Book of Mormon and our people. Below are some examples of the lengths they go to in an attempt to keep people isolated and away from us:
A Baptist minister who joined our church in Lithuania said he was strongly pressured to never speak with representatives of our church or read the Book of Mormon. Later, he and his wife finally saw what we truly believe, read the Book of Mormon, loved it, and joined our Church.
When my older brother and his family lived in Texas, his young daughter, who was about 10 years old at the time, gave her young friend a wrapped copy of the Book of Mormon as a special, priceless birthday gift. The friend opened the wrapping and immediately dropped the book, saying that in her Christian church she had been taught that the Book of Mormon was so evil that you shouldn’t even touch it.
True Story: My dear wife, Amparo, was once visiting two young Christian men at an airport while they were waiting for their flight. When they discovered she was a member of our Church, one of them told her that he believed (obviously from false rumors he had learned at his Christian church) that our missionaries were so evil and doing so much harm to those they knew. He expressed, “If I saw a young woman being raped and at the same time saw two of your missionaries talking to someone about your Church and its teachings, I would ignore the woman being raped and go try to save the person your missionaries were talking to.” Amparo was astonished that the young man had been so completely lied to, and out of sheer ignorance and a total misunderstanding of our teachings because of false rumors; he spoke so strongly against our Church and our missionaries, as if our sincere, caring missionaries were the devil himself! His friend seemed to agree with him. Amparo could hardly believe that these two young men, who called themselves Christians, were taught, and actually believed, that the loving and beautiful teachings focused on Jesus Christ, of our missionaries, were even more harmful to people than being raped!! It is shocking to me that so many people actually believe these crazy lies about our loving Christian missionaries and our members being evil, without even checking it out for themselves to verify if these false stories about the Church of Jesus Christ were simply started and perpetrated by The Devil and his team.
“So, Charles, if these stories about our church members and the Book of Mormon being evil are just old fables and rumors that the devil and his team started almost 200 years ago, why don’t more people just check it out for themselves to find out if it’s true or not? A person can still get a copy of the Book of Mormon, can’t they? So they can read it, study it, and pray to God, to find out for themselves if it’s good or evil, and of God or not. Yes, and that’s why the devil and his team still spread countless lies to try to keep people from reading and praying about the Book of Mormon.
A Christian pastor in Arizona posted a sign in front of his church with this message/warning: “Don’t read the Book of Mormon—that’s how they trap you.” In a way, that pastor was right; the Book of Mormon has been the most powerful, convicting, and spiritually uplifting tool (from God Himself) that draws over 250,000 of God’s children to our church each year—more than anything else. If you prayerfully read the Book of Mormon yourself, you will understand why so many millions have found it to be such a powerful tool in leading God’s children to a more powerful testimony of the Bible and of Jesus Christ as our Savior.
The Book of Mormon, in addition to meeting with our missionaries and attending our local churches, wonderfully helps people know for certain that we are Christians and that we love Jesus Christ as our Savior, and that the false stories fabricated about the Book of Mormon and our people being evil are not true at all. Personally, I don’t see how anyone who prayerfully reads the Book of Mormon could even think it could be evil. If someone tells you the Book of Mormon is evil, they’ve obviously never read it, or at least not all of it with a prayerful heart and an open mind.
True story: When I was a young 20-year-old missionary in Germany, my companion and I gave a lady a copy of the Book of Mormon, and she began reading it and was so fascinated she could hardly put it down. She read it a lot every day for a couple of weeks. Then one day I asked her if she believed in the Bible. She said, I don’t know. I’ve never read it. Then I read her a couple of verses from the Book of Mormon that testify that the Bible is from God and is true. She replied that she knew the Bible must be true and from God because she could clearly feel that the Book of Mormon was true and from God.
Are you curious to see what the Book of Mormon and our Church truly teaches and believes, and how we are taught to live lives of service and love to God and all of God’s children, or do you simply want to rely on the 200 years of negative rumors against us? Isn’t it time for you and everyone else to finally find out what our Church and the Book of Mormon really teach?
If you listen to our young missionaries for just a couple of visits, you will quickly sense their sincerity, kindness, true love and goodness, and their strong testimonies of the Bible and Jesus Christ as our Savior. Pause to consider if your own children and grandchildren were selflessly sacrificing two years of their precious lives without pay to serve as Christian missionaries and teach full-time about Jesus Christ and how to build more loving family relationships by applying the teachings of Jesus Christ in their lives; wouldn’t you want people to invite them in, listen to their message, and be kind to them, instead of turning them away at the door and sending them away? Please be kind to the faithful young men and women of our church, who have the courage and commitment to Jesus Christ and his teachings to sacrifice two precious years in the prime of their lives. In reality, young men serve for 24 months and young women for 18 months.
Do you trust your own ability to read and study the Book of Mormon, listen to the messages from our young missionaries, and prayerfully sense from God whether it is a good book and a good message that helps you love and trust the Lord? Does the Bible and Jesus Christ as your Savior even more, or whether it is evil and encourages or motivates you to do evil? With God’s help, we can all easily perceive and feel the difference between right and wrong, good and evil, and so on, cannot we? So why should anyone fear reading the sixth most read book in the world to discover for themselves why many millions—including the Osmond family, my wife, and I—gladly testify that the Book of Mormon has brought greater love, joy, and inner peace into our lives and into our family and other relationships?
William Tyndale, who translated the Bible into English, wrote the following regarding the beautiful, transformative power of God’s Word in our lives: “The nature of the word of God is, that whosoever reads it, or hears it reasoned and disputed before him, will immediately begin to do better and better every day, until he becometh a perfect man.” Many millions of us Bible-believing Christians gladly testify that there is a positive, real, and undeniable “scripture power” that comes into our lives every time we engage in serious, prayerful study of both the Bible and the Book of Mormon.
The children in our church sing a beautiful and true song called “Scripture Power,” written by Clive Romney, with these words:
1. “Because I want to be like the Savior and I can,
I am reading His instructions, I am following His plan.
Because I want the power that his word will give me,
I’m changing the way I live, I’m changing what I will be.
(Chorus) The power of Scripture keeps me safe from sin.
The power of Scripture is the power to win.
Power of Scripture! Every day I need
The power I get every time I read.
2. I will find the sword of truth in every scripture I learn.
I will take the shield of faith from these pages that I turn.
I will wear every vital part of the Lord’s armor,
And I will fight my daily battles and earn a great reward.”
Important questions to reflect on and test for ourselves, and not rely solely on false negative rumors:
Does “The Book of Mormon, Another Testament of Jesus Christ,” have the same positive, life-transforming power that the Bible has? – – – – Although there are also many millions of Bible-believing Christians who have never read the Book, but who, out of ignorance, help spread false rumors that the Book of Mormon is evil and should be avoided like the worst plague. So, which side do you think is more likely to be correct? – – – the testimony of the millions of Christians who have prayerfully read the Book of Mormon, or of the millions who have not read it, and really have no idea what it teaches, and are simply helping to spread the false slander that they were taught?
If you read the Book of Mormon prayerfully, you’ll know that no ignorant young man like farmer Joseph Smith could have written it. And no one else could have written it without God’s help. As Apostle Jeffrey R. Holland wrote: “My own great-grandfather said quite simply, ‘No wicked man could write such a book as this; and no good man would write it unless it was true and God commanded him to.’ If you choose to check it out for yourself, I think you’ll end up feeling the same way. And why would the devil help publish a book that actually transforms millions of lives in positive ways and leads millions to a deeper faith in the Bible and a closer relationship with our Savior, Jesus Christ? Of course, it makes sense that the devil and his team would be willing to spread any lie they can to try to scare people into believing that the Church of Jesus Christ, which He has restored to the earth with prophets and apostles, is evil and that the Book of Mormon is evil if it is from God and true, as many millions of Christians testify.