Clearing up 200 years of “purposeful” on-going misunderstandings
The devil and his team of liars and deceivers have been purposely 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 Church for that very reason. Please pause to remember, that in the days when Jesus Christ and his apostles were on the earth, that the devil and his team, also worked hard to get the other Bible believing Churches/groups such as the Pharisees, to start spreading false negative slander and thereby inciting persecution against The Church of Jesus Christ. When I refer to the devil and his team spreading false slander, I am including both those who purposely tell the lies and slander against us knowing that it is lies; and also those who do it ignorantly, not realizing that it is false slander, because they have just believed it from others, who believed it from others. When lies are told over and over for long enough, then many people start to believe the lies, without ever checking out the facts for themselves, which is definitely the case here.
Sadly, the devil has even found ways to get most modern day Christian churches and pastors to ignorantly believe the false slander against our Church, with little or no understanding of what we actually 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 of those Christians who now help the devil and his team to spread the false slander, are actually even believing the false slander so much, that they believe that they are doing a truly good thing, by trying to scare people away from checking out “The Book of Mormon Another Testament of Jesus Christ”, and what it and our missionaries and Church actually teaches. That is much like how Saul of Taursus, who believed in the Bible, but not in Jesus Christ as the promised Messiah or in His Church and teachings, was ignorantly convinced that he was doing a very good thing to persecute the members of the Church of Jesus Christ.
The vast majority of the false slander spreaders have never read the Book of Mormon, or at least not all of it with an open mind or prayerful heart, or there is no way they could come up with the ridiculous conclusion that it is evil, as they teach. It would be really nice if they would prayerfully read the Book of Mormon with an open mind, before they start spreading the false slander against it and against the 75,000 missionaries and against the millions of faithful and kind-hearted Bible believing active members of our Church, who truly do accept Jesus Christ as our Savior.
Our church leaders and members have in recent years, been trying even more to respectfully ask the media and everyone else to please refer to us by what has always been the real name of our church, but most Christians still refuse to do so, and call us Mormons in a derogatory and disrespectful way. They don’t want to refer to us by the real name of our Church, because that would make it much harder for them to convince others of the false negative hearsay, that we are not Christians. If anyone in the media refers to our Church as “Mormons”, you can know they are against us, and helping to spread false slander. Anyone trying to be fair and respectful, will refer to us by the real name of our Church.
Our Church is the 4th largest Church in the United States, and we have about 17 million members worldwide. For us Christians of various different denominations; I believe that it is important that we get to know each other better, and learn to work better together in supporting good and righteous causes, with more respect, unity, and teamwork, etc. There is so much good that we can accomplish together, to solve the problems in the world, and to bring more children of God to a love of the Bible, and to a deeper relationship with our Father in Heaven, and His Son, Jesus Christ as our Savior. I fasted and prayed about whether to include this article on my website. I knew that this would be very controversial, and that many Christian pastors and those who have been taught by them, would try to get people to not join or start any Christ-Centered Sports and Games Teams, because of which Christian Church I belong to. However, as I prayed about it, I felt convinced that God specifically wanted me to include this on my website.
I believe it is important that we clear up almost 200 years of “purposeful” negative false hearsay against our Church, that keeps getting ignorantly spread by those who don’t understand us. I invite you to try to understand what we actually believe and who we are, instead of trusting in 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, self, family members and others; why are you trying to clear up 200 years of misunderstandings caused by false negative hearsay on your website?” Please pause to consider, how can we as fellow Christians; build good and trusting relationships with each other, if one side has been taught for about 200 years to believe a huge assortment of false negative hearsay against us, and 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 Saints slander spreaders, don’t ever, ever want to allow you or any members of your Church to present any true facts, that are clearly very different from their false slander?” – – – Oh, yes, I clearly understand that, but is that fair or right, that we should never be allowed to present the true facts about what our Church actually teaches, believes, and is? Would you readers please be respectful and kind enough, to allow me to present some of the true facts for you to open-mindedly consider?
In respect for each other, and as fellow Christians, I suggest that we start by focusing on some of the many beautiful things and principles that we share in common such as the following points:
1. We prayerfully study and dearly love the same Bible, – – – as other Christians do. – – and no, it is not a “different Bible” as many mis-informed slander spreaders teach, who know very little truthful information about us and our teachings. In English speaking countries of the world, we use the King James version of the Bible, which is by far the most commonly used English language Bible in the world for Christians.
2. We dearly love and trust in Jesus Christ as our Savior, as you do – – – and no, it is definitely not a “different Jesus”, as the slander spreaders have been teaching. For anyone interested in real facts, it is easy to observe in the lives of our converts and active members; that they become more kind, loving, and more devoted followers of Jesus Christ in their actions and words, after joining our Church, than they were before. Most of the converts to our Church that I have met throughout my life, were already Bible believing Christians before they converted. Does it really make sense that the approximately 20,000 people who join our Church each month; suddenly on the very day they are baptized, they all start believing in and following a “different Jesus”, even though they continue using and loving 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 labor diligently to write, to apersuade our children, and also our brethren, to believe in Christ, and to be reconciled to God; for we know that it is by bgrace that we are saved, after all we can cdo.”- – – which is very different than what the false slander spreaders say about us.
3. When we pray to our Father in Heaven, and seek to follow the teachings of Jesus Christ in the Bible as best we can; as other Christians do, we receive the same uplifting spiritual gifts of love, joy, inner-peace which passeth all understanding and 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, longsuffering, gentleness, goodness, faith” and Philippians 4:6-7. “in every thing by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known unto God. And the peace of God, which passeth all understanding, shall keep your hearts and minds through Christ Jesus.” I know with certainty that the love, joy, and inner-peace that surpasseth all understanding comes from the same Heavenly source for us that it does for you other committed Christians. The devil and his team can give money and everything that money can buy, but they have no real love, joy, inner-peace that passeth all understanding, gentleness, goodness, or positive endearing faith in Jesus Christ as our beloved Savior to give to anyone. After getting to know me somewhat, up to this point, do you really believe that I and millions of others in our church who are much like me and the Osmond family, believe in a different Jesus? And that we receive our inner peace, love, joy, guidance, strength to resist the temptations of the devil, etc. from a different source than the one described about and whose words and teachings you and I both read in the very same Bible? Please don’t fall for that lie from the slander spreaders, that we believe in a different Jesus Christ, because it is very easy for any open-minded person to do just a little investigation to find out that, that is definitely not true. Why do they spread such false easy to prove slander?
4. We are taught to have Jesus Christ and His joy-producing and love-producing teachings as the central focus of our lives – – – as other Christians are. We study the very same teachings and stories of Jesus Christ in the Bible that you do, that teach the beautiful stories of His life, his same sermon on the mount, parables, commandments, etc. that Christians from other Christian denominations study. These beautiful teachings bring the same uplifting and beautiful Spirit of God into our homes, lives, and relationships as they do for other Christians of various 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 from Jesus Christ are to love and serve God and to love and serve our families and our fellow-men, as Jesus taught.
“Jesus said unto him, Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy mind. This is the first and great commandment. And the second is like unto it, Thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself. 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 his or her interactions with you, they were clearly not following the teachings of our Church and the Bible that day, that we believe in, and encourage our members to follow. Of course, as in all Christian denominations, there are some members of our Church that are members of record 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, as with many of you in various other Christian Churches, is to bring as many people to as close of a joyful and trusting relationship with Jesus Christ and His joy-producing teachings as we possibly can. That is why we have about 75,00 of our youth volunteers out teaching the joy-producing and love-producing teachings of Jesus Christ full-time, and testifying of Jesus Christ as our Savior. If you choose to get to know some of them, you will quickly know that they are good, not evil, and that they share strong testimonies of the Bible and of Jesus Christ as our Savior.
7. When we are prayerful and highly 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; isn’t that true. Some people call it our conscience, and it is referred to as “The Light of Christ” in The Book of Mormon. It isour built-in inner-guidance system from God. That inner Light of Christ guidance system, can dim a lot and become almost non-existent, when people choose to reject it’s guidance over and over. But when any Child of God follows the inner Light of Christ guidance system, it brings them closer to God and blesses their lives in joyful ways.
Any child of God anywhere in the world, can do an experiment on this amazing inner-guidance system that our loving Father in Heaven gave to each of us children of God on earth. You can also ask others who are not yet Christians if they also are blessed with increased love, joy, inner peace, etc. when they choose to do anything good or kind or right – – – or is it just Christians who have this inner guidance system (conscience).
Does God and His Son, Jesus Christ; love every child of God, or just those who have already accepted Jesus Christ as their Savior? – – – Clue: remember when Jesus was suffering horribly on the cross, after being mocked, severely whipped, 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, for the Bible tells me so”? Doesn’t that verse and so very many other verses in the Bible, clearly prove that our Father in Heaven and Jesus Christ, love each child of God more than we can comprehend – – – even when we make mistakes and bad choices? – – and even though we belong to various different Christian churches, and even those who are not Christians yet, and those who may not even believe in God yet.
You can do your own little survey if you like about the Light of Christ inner guidance system that every child of God is blessed with. Simply ask yourself, and people of various different Christian faiths, and even non-Christians:
When you choose to do anything that is kind, good, right, respectful, and of loving service toward others, what do you feel deep inside of you? Do you feel increased joy, love, inner peace, etc. as God has promised in the Bible in Galatians 5:22 and other places? Do you believe that 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 that we feel that increased love, joy, and inner peace when any of us chooses to do acts of kindness toward others? Isn’t that what God rewards or pay us with for doing acts of kindness toward any of His other children?
What does the devil and his team reward or pay with when children of God do what the devil and his team wants them to do? – – – nothing of any real value, that is for sure. Does the devil and his team have any of these truly precious gifts of real love, joy, inner-peace to give or pay with? Or, do they only have the cheap rewards of those little green papers ($100 bills), and things that money can buy such as worldly wealth, power, worldly pleasures, etc. – – – which have no lasting value at all and that bring no real love, joy, or inner peace in our short time on earth or beyond?
Isn’t it true that when any child of God, chooses to give their best effort to follow the inner spirit guidance of the “Light of Christ” (conscience), that they are blessed with increased light and joy in their countenance? It is a light that can not be hidden, even if we wanted to. We can see and sense that inner light and joy and love in those who choose to follow that inner spirit guidance system from God – – – even if they do not yet recognize that that guidance system is from God. I suggest that we all learn to deeply appreciate that light and any goodness and kindness in each other, whether we happen to belong to a different religion, or even 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 are His true followers, when he taught the following:
“A new commandment I give unto you, That ye love one another; as I have loved you, that ye also love one another. By this shall all men know that ye are my disciples, if ye have love one to another.” Bible: John 13:34-35
Jesus taught further about how we can know who is on his team as His followers:
“Ye shall know them by their fruits. Do men gather grapes of thorns, or figs of thistles? Even so every good tree bringeth forth good fruit; but a corrupt tree bringeth forth evil fruit. A good tree cannot bring forth evil fruit, neither can a corrupt tree bring forth good fruit. Every tree that bringeth not forth good fruit is hewn down, and cast into the fire. Wherefore by their fruits ye shall know them. Not every one that saith unto me, Lord, Lord, shall enter into the kingdom of heaven; but he that doeth the will of my Father which is in heaven.” Bible: Matthew 7:16-21
Wouldn’t it be wonderful if all of us Christians of various denominations, followed what Jesus Christ taught about how we can know who are true disciples and followers of Jesus Christ and who are not, as we get to know Christians of various denominations with an open mind, and see if they have love one to another, and if their fruits are good or bad – – – instead of being swayed by 200 years of false negative heresay that was started and continues by the devil and his team?
I am not saying that the Christian pastors are evil, who spread the false slander that they were taught against us in their Bible schools, by those who were also taught the same false heresay in Bible school about our Church and people being evil and how we and the Book of Mormon are evil and should be avoided like the plague. I believe that most of those pastors mean well, but are completely mis-informed, and obviously, they have never actually read the Book of Mormon, or at least not with an open-mind and prayerful heart, or they could never come up with the ridiculous and false conclusion that it is evil – – – when it has brought 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 His teachings.
One of the most well known families internationally in our church, is the Osmond family, including Donny and Marie Osmond, who are blessed with a very loving and large extended family, – – – very similar to millions of others in our church; whose highest focus and priority is to love and serve God, and 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 do love Jesus Christ as their Savior and they give their best efforts to follow His teachings in all that they do. There has been a lot of false negative hearsay started by the devil, for almost 200 years since our church was organized in 1830 incorrectly labeling our missionaries, and members, and the Book of Mormon as evil. However, now that there are about 17 million of us all over the world, and those active members of our church, who follow our teachings, have much “love one to another”; it has made it much harder for those spreading the false hearsay against us, to convince others that we are all evil, and not Bible-believing Christians or real followers of Jesus Christ, and that we will all therefore be sent to suffer forever in Hell by our loving and fair Father in Heaven!! – – – which of course, makes no sense to anyone who follows their Light of Christ inner-guidance system, or who decides to check out what our Church and missionaries actually teach and are.
Jesus also taught: “ If ye keep my commandments, ye shall abide in my love; even 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; do make daily efforts to prayerfully stay close to our Father in Heaven, and our Savior, Jesus Christ, by keeping their commandments, and sharing God’s love with others. In my mind, a Christian is anyone who chooses to follow Jesus Christ and His commandments/teachings, including accepting Jesus Christ as our Savior. Any person who knows some of our active members and teachings well, and does not avoid us like the plague will know that the active members our Church, are definitely committed and faithful Christians.
I hope that you don’t mind if I try to clear up almost 200 years of false misunderstandings about our Christian church in this chapter. A modern day living apostle of Jesus Christ, M. Russell Ballard, wrote a great book entitled, “Our Search for Happiness – – An invitation to understand the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints.” That would be a great short and very easy to understand book – – along with The Book of Mormon, for anyone to read, who may be interested in trying to understand what we really believe, instead of just trusting in 200 years of negative false hearsay against us. Yes, I do realize that a great 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 we will therefore all be sent by our loving and fair Father in Heaven to suffer forever in Hell, but that could not be further from the truth, and of course, it doesn’t make sense either, does it? Would our loving Savior, really send all of the 17 million members of our Church to suffer forever in Hell, – – – just because many anti-Church of Jesus Christ slander spreaders, say that we will or should be sent there. Please read further as I try to help you to understand us and our actual teachings better.
Most of you have likely seen the Christian pass-along cards that many Christian churches pass out, that tell us all that if we will just say a certain prayer accepting Jesus Christ as our Savior on your deathbed or before, and asking to be forgiven; that you will be “saved”, and go to Heaven to receive your maximum reward – – – just like they say the thief on the cross next to Jesus did. The active members of our church definitely have accepted Jesus Christ as our Savior, and have asked to be forgiven, and they love the Bible, and try to follow it; so according to what they teach on the pass-along cards, our active members would of course, be saved and go to Heaven, isn’t that right? Yet, most of them ignorantly teach, what they were taught in Bible school, that we worship a different Jesus, and therefore, our loving and fair Father in Heaven, will send all of us to suffer forever in Hell. Isn’t God the one who instills in us as parents the desire to be fair and kind toward each of our own children? Isn’t that clear proof that God will be fair with all of us, as His children, and not just punish all 17 million of us forever in Hell, because some Christian pastors who know very little real facts 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 with our own children?
Like the apostle Paul, I am not ashamed of the gospel of Jesus Christ, and I am definitely also not ashamed at all to be 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 that are taught in our Church, which I and millions of others believe matches the Bible better than any other Church, and which is completely different than the almost 200 years of false hearsay that others say we teach and that we are. Millions have joined our Church, because they knew members of our Church, and started to wonder what our Church and people actually believe and teach, because the horrible false hearsay about our Church and people just does not match the lies that have been spread against us – – – – which are completely opposite of the real truth.
I decided that like the apostle Paul, I should not be ashamed to let it be known to everyone, that I am a devoted follower of Jesus Christ and of the Bible, and a devoted member of “The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints”. I am also convinced that there are some great power quotes from the Book of Mormon and our two other books of scripture, The Doctrine and Covenants, and The Pearl of Great Price, that help powerfully back the Bible and Jesus Christ as our Savior, and His beautiful teachings.
One of my all-time favorite and most important subjects of all-time is the beautiful teachings on my website on the subject of: “God’s Plan of Happiness/Salvation vs. One Heaven & One Hell Plan for the forever future of all children of God.” And I just can’t teach those beautiful principles very well without making it clear that we believe that God has revealed beautiful additional truths to us through modern day prophets and apostles, in these latter days, in order to clear up some major confusions, that made God sound like a not very fair, just, or loving Father in Heaven – – – such as the One Heaven & One Hell concept that I am convinced was never taught by Jesus or any of His apostles or prophets in Bible times, but that started to be taught a couple of hundred years later, after Jesus and all of his apostles had been martyred/murdered. Please finish reading this and the article on my website regarding God’s Plan of Happiness, and you will start to understand and deeply appreciate how truly loving and fair our Father in Heaven and His Son, Jesus Christ, truly are. For example, they won’t send someone to Hell forever, just because they did not have plenty of opportunity to learn of Jesus Christ before they died. Everyone will be given ample opportunity to learn clearly and lovingly of Jesus Christ, and to accept Him as their Savior, after they leave this life, as many Bible verses and common sense given to us from God, make clear.
The fact is that many millions of strongly committed intelligent Christians, such as 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 to 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 various 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 evil and should be avoided like the worst plague – – – because of almost 200 years of negative false hearsay.
Isn’t it about time for all intelligent seekers of truth to find out what we actually believe, and what the Book of Mormon actually teaches, instead of being afraid to read it out of fear placed in them by the devil and his team of deceivers? – – – especially now that it is the 6th most read book in the history of the world!! And how did it become the 6th most read book in the history of the world, with over 193 million copies in print in at least 115 languages? – – – for the exact same reason that the Bible became the #1 most read book in the world, because both books have made such a positive and powerful influence and motivation for good and have brought real joy and inner-peace in the lives of many millions of children of God in helping them to come closer to God and to His Son, Jesus Christ, and to help make all of their most important relationships more joyful, thankful, trusting, loving, etc.
Questions to ponder on: If the Book of Mormon has had such a power for good in so many millions of lives, why are there so many Christian pastors and their followers, who teach 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 prayerful heart, because of almost 200 years of false negative slander against it by the devil and his team. Why does the devil and his team hate the Bible and the Book of Mormon so much? – – because of their power to do good and to bring us closer to God and to His Son, Jesus Christ.
Our church typically has about 200,000 to 300,000 new convert baptisms each year, because a large percentage of those who dare to go against peer pressure, and decide to find out what our Church actually teaches. So, they study and pray to God about what we actually believe and teach, and they end up loving the beautiful and uplifting teachings. In one year alone, in 1977, because of the Donny and Marie Osmond family being so very well known as a truly loving Bible-believing Christian family, who love Jesus Christ as their Savior; over 28,000 of the convert baptisms in our Church that year; were of people who, because of the Osmond family, decided to check out what our church and the Book of Mormon actually teaches and actually is, instead of just trusting the negative false hearsay and avoiding all of us supposedly evil members of our Church. The whole Osmond family of musicians were so highly respected as a wonderful loving Christian family, that it became difficult for the Anti-Church of Jesus Christ false slander spreaders, to keep children of God from being very curious to find out what we actually believe and teach, instead of just relying on the 200 years of false negative hearsay. The Osmond family often had free meetings 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 of God’s loving and fair Plan of Happiness that you can read about on another article on my website, and our other beautiful teachings that bring so much joy and love to families and relationships with God, self, family members and others.
If someone told you that they believe that every member of the big Osmond extended family are all evil, and that our loving and fair Father in Heaven, will send them all to Hell to suffer forever, would that sound reasonable and true to you? Do you realize that there are literally millions of members of our church that are very much like Donny and Marie Osmond and their family? – – – in how they treat their family members and others with kindness, respect, honesty, genuineness, integrity, love, etc. – – – not in having the amazing music skills that the Osmond family has. Any member of our church, who lives by the teachings of our Church and the Bible that we heartily love and study, are very much like the Osmond family. If Donny and Marie Osmond were to knock on your door to share a beautiful message with you about Jesus Christ and the Bible, would you let them in, and treat them with respect, and at least listen to their message? Do you realize that our dearly beloved sons and daughters and grandchildren are among the over 70,000 current young missionaries from our church, who have chosen to sacrifice two years of their precious lives to share the joyful teachings of Jesus Christ at their own expense. These young men and ladies are amazingly so very much like Donny and Marie Osmond and their family? So, please at least treat them with kindness and respect, and listen to what they actually teach, instead of trusting in 200 years of false hearsay.
You may be thinking that your pastor would not want you to even read this, to find out what we actually believe, because as you may know; in many Christian churches, they have an occasional Anti-Church of Jesus Christ day, to try to convince their members to stay isolated away from us and our supposedly “evil” missionaries and the Book of Mormon. The pastors themselves, were taught by much negative false hearsay at their Bible colleges, to keep themselves and their people isolated away from the Book of Mormon and our people. Below are some examples of how far they go, to try to keep people isolated away from us:
A Baptist minister who joined our church in Lithuania, said that he was strongly pressured to never even speak to representatives of our church or to ever read the Book of Mormon. He and his wife later ended up checking out what we actually believe, and they did read the Book of Mormon and loved it, and joined our Church.
When my older brother and his family were living in Texas, their young daughter who was about 10 years old at the time, gave her young friend a copy of The Book of Mormon wrapped up as a priceless and special present for her birthday. The friend opened the wrapping, and immediately dropped the book, and said that she had been taught in her Christian church that the Book of Mormon, was so evil that you should never even touch it.
True Story: My dear wife, Amparo, was visiting one time with two young “Christian” men in an airport while waiting for her flight. When they found out that she was a member of our Church, one of them told her that he believed (obviously from false hearsay he had learned in his Christian church), that our missionaries were so evil and doing so much harm to others they meet with, that he expressed: If I saw a young lady being raped and at the same time, I saw two of your missionaries talking with someone about your Church and teachings, I would ignore the lady being raped, and go try to save the person that your missionaries were talking with. Amparo was astonished that the young man had been so completely lied to, and out of pure ignorance and total lack of understanding of our teachings from false hearsay; spoke so strongly against our Church and our missionaries, as if our sincere and kind-hearted missionaries are the devil himself! His friend, seemed to agree with him. Amparo could hardly believe that these two young men, who called themselves Christian, were taught and actually believed, that the loving and beautiful teachings focused on Jesus Christ, from our missionaries, was even more harmful to people than being raped!! It is amazing to me that so many people actually believe these crazy lies about our loving Christian missionaries and our members being evil, without ever checking it out for themselves to verify if these false stories about The Church of Jesus Christ were just started and perpetrated by the devil and his team.
“So, Charles, if these stories about the members of our church and the Book of Mormon being evil, are just old fables and hearsay, that the devil and his team started almost 200 years ago, why is it that more people don’t simply check it out for themselves to find out if it is true or not? A person can still get their hands on a copy of the Book of Mormon, can’t they? – – – so they can read, study, and pray to God, to find out for themselves if it is evil or good, and from God or not. Yes, and that is why the devil and his team still spread countless lies to try to keep people from reading and praying about the Book of Mormon.
One Christian Pastor in Arizona put up a sign in front of his church, with this message/warning: “Don’t read the Book of Mormon, that is how they get you.” In a way, that pastor was right; The Book of Mormon has been the most powerful and convincing and spiritually uplifting tool (from God Himself) that brings more of the 250,000 or so children of God into our church each year, than anything else. If you prayerfully read the Book of Mormon yourself, you will understand why so many millions have found out that it is such a powerful tool to bring children of God to a more powerful testimony of the Bible and of Jesus Christ as our Savior.
The Book of Mormon along with meeting with our missionaries and attending our local Churches, so beautifully helps people to know with certainty that we are Christians, and that we love Jesus Christ as our Savior, and that the false fabricated stories about the Book of Mormon and our people being evil, are absolutely not true. I personally don’t see how anyone who reads the Book of Mormon prayerfully, could even think that it could be evil. If anyone tells you that the Book of Mormon is evil, obviously they have never actually read it – – – or at least not all of it with a prayerful heart and 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 started to read it, and was so fascinated, that she could hardly put it down. She read it a lot daily for a couple of weeks. Then, one day I asked her if she believed in the Bible. She said, I don’t know. I have never read it. I then read her a couple of verses in the Book of Mormon, that testify that the Bible is from God, and is true. She responded that she knew the Bible must be true and was from God, because she could clearly sense that the Book of Mormon was true and was from God.
Do you have any curiosity to check out what the Book of Mormon, and our Church actually teaches and believes, and how we are taught to live lives of service and love toward God and all children of God, or do you want to just trust in the 200 years of false negative hearsay against us? Isn’t it about time that you and everyone finally finds out what our church and the Book of Mormon actually teaches?
If you listen to our young missionaries for just a couple of visits, you will quickly sense their sincerity, kindness, real love, and goodness, and their strong testimonies of the Bible and of Jesus Christ as our Savior. Please pause to consider, if your own children and grandchildren were out unselfishly 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 and hear their message, and be kind to them, rather than shunning them at the door, and sending them away? Please be nice to the faithful young men and ladies in 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. Actually, the young men serve for 24 months, and the young ladies for 18 months.
Do you trust in your own ability to read and study the Book of Mormon, and listen to messages from our young missionaries, and to prayerfully sense from God whether it is a good book and a good message, that helps you to love and trust 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 quite easily sense and feel the difference between good and evil, right and wrong, etc., isn’t that true? So, why should anyone fear checking out the 6th most read book in the world to find out for themselves why many millions – – – including the Osmond family, and my wife and I, gladly testify that the Book of Mormon has brought increased love, joy, and inner peace to our lives and our family relationships and other relationships?
William Tyndale, who translated the Bible into English, wrote the following regarding the beautiful transforming power of God’s Word in our lives: “The nature of God’s word is, that whosoever read it, or hear it reasoned and disputed before him, it will begin immediately to make him every day better and better, till he be grown into a perfect man.” Many millions of us Bible believing Christians gladly testify that there is real and undeniable positive “Scripture Power” that comes into our lives whenever we do a serious and 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’m reading His instructions, I’m following His plan.
Because I want the power His word will give to me,
I’m changing how I live, I’m changing what I’ll be.
(Chorus) Scripture power keeps me safe from sin.
Scripture power is the power to win.
Scripture power! Ev’ry day I need
The power that I get each time I read.
2. I’ll find the sword of truth in each scripture that I learn.
I’ll take the shield of faith from these pages that I turn.
I’ll wear each vital part of the armor of the Lord,
And fight my daily battles, and win a great reward.”
Important questions to ponder on and to check out for ourselves, and not just rely on false negative hearsay:
Does “The Book of Mormon Another Testament of Jesus Christ have the same positive life transforming power that the Bible has? – – – – Even though there are also many millions of Bible believing Christians, who have never read the Book, but who ignorantly help spread the false hearsay, that the Book of Mormon is evil and should be avoided like the worst plague. So, which side do you believe is more likely to be correct? – – – the testimony of the millions of Christians who have prayerfully read the Book of Mormon, or the millions who have not read it, and truly have no idea what it teaches, and are simply helping to spread the false slander they were taught?
If you prayerfully read the Book of Mormon, you will know that no unlearned young man like the farm boy, 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 simply enough, ‘No wicked man could write such a book as this; and no good man would write it unless it were true and he were commanded of God to do so.” If you choose to check it out yourself, I believe you will end up feeling the same way. And why would the devil help bring out a book that truly transforms millions of lives in a positive way, and that brings millions to a deeper faith in the Bible, and to a closer relationship to our Savior, Jesus Christ? Of course, it does make sense that the devil and his team, would be willing to spread any lies they could to try to scare people into believing that the Church of Jesus Christ that He has restored on 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.