A young man stopped by my house and tried to entice me into reading the Book of Mormon yesterday. He told me that "A revelation of truth is worth more than anything in this world." I would agree with him, had he been talking about the Bible. I've read enough of the Book of Mormon to realize that it doesn't agree with the Bible, and even though its author, Joseph Smith, "borrowed" much of it from the King James Bible, it is still so obviously tainted with flaws, historical and otherwise, and so contradictory to the Bible that I don't want to have its contents in my thought life.

He wanted to know how I would answer God when I'm on the "hot seat," and He is telling me that He provided me with "other truth" and I ignored it. I provided him with the information that I won't be on a "hot seat" because even with all of my flaws, Jesus died for me and that He paid, once and for all, in full, for all of my sins. A "hot seat" is not in my future with God. In addition to that Paul told his brothers and sisters in the church at Galatia;

"8But even if we, or an angel from heaven, preach any other gospel to you than what we have preached to you, let him be accursed. 9 As we have said before, so now I say again, if anyone preaches any other gospel to you than what you have received, let him be accursed. 10 For do I now persuade men, or God? Or do I seek to please men? For if I still pleased men, I would not be a bondservant of Christ." Galatians 1:8-10

I mean, what more does a Bible believing Christian need to know when first seeking to know whether Mormonism qualifies as Christianity or not? Joseph Smith takes a meeting with the "angel" Moroni, and receives this gospel which he is told is a restoration of the fullness of the true gospel, which was lost. Joseph Smith is told (I'm paraphrasing) that for the previous approximately 1,800 years there had been a total apostasy and that all other churches were false. Ridiculous.

Not only is the Book of Mormon a fictional journey into fraud by Joseph Smith, but the LDS organization has tacked many of its strange doctrines onto this book, even though they aren't contained in it. There aren't even any allusions to these doctrines, yet I'm being told I should read a "book which contains the fullness of the everlasting gospel."

If the Book of Mormon contains this fullness, then why isn't the Mormon doctrine of eternal progression contained in it? There isn't any mention of men progressing to godhood and ruling over their own planets. The doctrine of plurality of gods isn't contained in the Book of Mormon, and neither is the doctrine of a mother god,
the god used to be a man on another planet doctrine,
the God has a body of flesh and bones doctrine,
the god is married to his goddess wife and is having spirit babies doctrine,
the we existed in heaven as spirit babies and then were born into flesh doctrine,
the Jesus and Satan were spirit brothers doctrine,
the Jesus' work on the Cross wasn't enough to cleanse us from sin doctrine,
the good works are necessary for salvation doctrine,
the God the Father came down from Heaven and had relations with Mary to father Jesus doctrine,
the Joseph Smith said that "the Garden of Eden" was located on the North American continent in Jackson County, Missouri doctrine (even though the Tigris and Euphrates rivers in Mesopotamia are two of the four mentioned in Genesis 2:10-14),
the we are saved by grace---after we've done all that we can do doctrine,
the Bible is good so far as it is translated correctly doctrine,
the baptism for the dead doctrine,
the heaven has three levels that you can progress to doctrine,
not to mention the doctrine Joseph Smith lied publicly about and then admitted to later (once he said he had received the "new and everlasting covenant" which is I guess no longer a "new and everlasting covenant" revelation from Jesus Christ) the ever infamous plurality of wives doctrine, and believe me, this is not a comprehensive list.
Oh yeah, and this is my personal favorite, the "There is no salvation without accepting Joseph Smith as a prophet of God" doctrine, (found in Doctrines of Salvation Vol. 1, page 188).

The big push over the last decade or so has been to see to it that Mormonism becomes accepted as a mainstream "Christian" church, and even though the yearly energy needs of many a small country could be powered by the back-peddling efforts of the LDS organization on some of their teachings, like the "God the Father was Adam doctrine," as proposed by Brigham Young, and the "plurality of wives" doctrine as put forth by Joseph Smith, most of the ridiculously unBiblical and very strange doctrines I listed above are still endorsed, though not advertised by them. Why from this world, would I ever want to read anything connected with all those sorts of untruths when I have the true Word of God, the Bible?

Mormonism is all about one being able to earn enough merit through goodness and good deeds to achieve a level of worthiness through obedience to the Mormon religious organization. That's it and all about it. If you're considering Mormonism because members of the Mormon organization have helped you when you've needed it, or have treated you kindly in some way, I hope that you'll remember that false teachers and false prophets commonly do acts of kindness. Everybody responds to kindness, and unfortunately, it can be a tool that gets a deceptive foot in the door, letting in all forms of ungodliness and blasphemy purported to be in God's name. Don't allow yourself to be deceived.

If you haven't already, I would encourage you to read the Book of John or Matthew for a start, and read about the true Savior of the World in Jesus Christ. Meet Him there and read the rest of the Bible. It will not be deceptive in any way, and it will not be a waste of your time. Peace.