Question
Dear Gramps,
I found your site on the moregoodfoundation web site. I have read many of your answers to questions, and have been impressed. I am not a member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, but have been interested in it ever since I was a member of a Boy Scout troop in the early 1970s.
My question concerns doing internet research on Mormonism. Whenever you search the topic “Mormonism”, “LDS” or “Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints” you immediately find literally hundreds of anti-Mormon web sites, blogs and materials. The majority of these sites are done by either apostates or fundamentalist Christians.
What makes former LDS members so angry? Why is there such rage at their former church? I see from some of the writings that many were actually quite involved in their faith. When a member of my faith leaves, he or she generally just slips away, or finds another faith community that meets his or her needs better. I’ve never seen that kind of rage that I see expressed in the “recovery from Mormonism” web sites. Also, I believe, after reading much of that material, that it is unhealthy both spiritually and emotionally to carry that kind of baggage around.
Rob
Answer
Dear Rob,
You have hit on a very key topic. It was ever thus–from the very beginning! When the Savior organized his church during his mortal ministry, he attracted a few righteous adherents, but many very violently opposed his doctrine–so much so that he was falsely accused of trumped up charges, and by popular acclaim was put to death. Little did his assailants know that they were fulfilling prophecy, and by so doing brought about the great atoning sacrifice that made salvation possible for all the believers, but also blessed his very detractors. This furious opposition continued until all his apostles (with the exception of John, who was banished to the Isle of Patmos) were put to death, and the church was destroyed. And this was also in fulfillment of prophecy. Paul, in addressing the church in Acts 20:29-30, said
For I know this, that after my departing shall grievous wolves enter in among you, not sparing the flock.
Also of your own selves shall men arise, speaking perverse things, to draw away disciples after them.
Paul, in 2 Thessalonians 2:1-12, also preached that after the church was destroyed it would be restored again–
Now we beseech you, brethren, by the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ, and by our gathering together unto him,
That ye be not soon shaken in mind, or be troubled, neither by spirit, nor by word, nor by letter as from us, as that the day of Christ is at hand.
Let no man deceive you by any means: for that day shall not come, except there come a falling away first, and that man of sin be revealed, the son of perdition;
Who opposeth and exalteth himself above all that is called God, or that is worshipped; so that he as God sitteth in the temple of God, shewing himself that he is God.
Remember ye not, that, when I was yet with you, I told you these things?
And now ye know what withholdeth that he might be revealed in his time.
For the mystery of iniquity doth already work: only he who now letteth will let, until he be taken out of the way.
And then shall that Wicked be revealed, whom the Lord shall consume with the spirit of his mouth, and shall destroy with the brightness of his coming:
Even him, whose coming is after the working of Satan with all power and signs and lying wonders,
And with all deceivableness of unrighteousness in them that perish; because they received not the love of the truth, that they might be saved.
And for this cause God shall send them strong delusion, that they should believe a lie:
That they all might be damned who believed not the truth, but had pleasure in unrighteousness.
Isaiah prophesied clearly and specifically of the restoration of God’s church in the last days–
And it shall come to pass in the last days, that the mountain of the LORD’S house shall be established in the top of the mountains, and shall be exalted above the hills; and all nations shall flow unto it.
And many people shall go and say, Come ye, and let us go up to the mountain of the LORD, to the house of the God of Jacob; and he will teach us of his ways, and we will walk in his paths: for out of Zion shall go forth the law, and the word of the LORD from Jerusalem. (Isa 2:2-3)
When that restoration occurred, beginning with the appearance of both the Father and Son to the boy Joseph Smith, the opposition to the work of the Lord began again in all its fury. That opposition has never abated, nor ever will, until the Lord come in his power and glory to destroy the wicked and initiate his great millennial reign. The unreasoned opposition against the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints that you so rightly observe among apostates and the organized sectarian religions is a powerful evidence that that church is indeed God’s kingdom restored to the earth in these, the last days, in fulfillment of biblical prophesy. It, as God’s kingdom on the earth, is the only organization that has the priesthood authority to officially administer in the name of Jesus Christ, to teach the doctrine and provide the ordinances of the gospel that are essential for the salvation of man. With reason does Satan rage against the Mormon Church!
Gramps
