There are presently five denominations (there have been many more, but these have ceased to exist) among the religious people commonly called "Mormons," but who call themselves "Latter-Day Saints." Three of these are very small. The two largest groups have their headquarters at Salt Lake City, Utah and at Independence, Missouri. Each of the five groups believes itself to be the original "Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints," as founded by Joseph Smith. The divisions in the ranks of Mormonism arose shortly after the death of Smith. Among the early leaders of these separate groups were Brigham Young, Joseph Smith, Jr. (son of the founder of Mormonism, who was also known as Joseph Smith, Jr.), Sidney Rigdon, Alphaeus Cutler and Mames J. Strang.

Joseph Smith was born December 23, 1805 in Sharon, Vermont and was killed June 27,1844 in Carthage, Illinois. He claimed to have had a series of visions beginning when he was a boy of FOURTEEN! In these "visions" he saw God, Christ and Angels, particularly the angel, "Moroni," was told that all existing churches were wrong, that he was to join none, that the pure gospel and the true church be re-established through him, and was given information and instructions which led to the "discovery" and "translation" of certain "plates of gold," from whence is supposed to have come the "Book of Mormon." The Book of Mormon (claims to be, gm) to be an account of the ancient inhabitants of this continent and a history of some of the Jews. Its background is fraudulent and its contents ridiculous.

The Mormon Church was organized April 16, 1830 at Fayette, New York. With Mormons revelation is continuous. Thus they embrace, not only The Book of Mormon, but other declarations and writings (principally the Book of Doctrines and Covenants and the Pearl of Great Price) of Smith (whom they claim was a prophet of God) and the declarations and writings of others since. These could gain acceptance only to the extent that the Bible was disparaged and reflected upon; therefore, Mormonism accepts the Bible with a broad condition ("as far as it is correctly translated"-they say that they can have more confidence in The Book of Mormon because it was translated with divine direction) that is supposed to take care of the many, many points at which it condemns The Book of Mormon and other "inspired" writings.

The Mormon Church is a human organization, having a human founder and a human creed; it began 1800 years after the establishment of the Lord's church in Jerusalem.

THE BOOK OF MORMON

The first edition of the Book of Mormon, the "Bible" of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints and the Reorganized Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints, was published in March, 1830 at Palmyra, New York. At a cost of $3,000 five thousand copies were printed.

On the flyleaf of that first edition "Joseph Smith, Junior" was referred to as "Author and Proprietor." In later editions this was changed to "Translated by Joseph Smith, Jun." The testimony of three witnesses, and then the testimony of eight witnesses were given in the back of the first edition. The eight witnesses also referred to "Joseph Smith, Jr." as "the Author and Proprietor of this work." In the 1837 edition, after two of these "witnesses" were dead this "testimony" was changed to read "Joseph Smith, Jun., the translator of this work."

The sell-styled prophet, Joseph Smith, claimed that the contents of the Book of Mormon came from records on "Golden Plates" by men who were supposed to be guided by God in the making and preservation of those records. Not only that; Smith himself claimed to have been given the translation in English, word by word, from God. He said himself, "I told the brethren that the Book of Mormon was the most correct of any book on earth, and the keystones of our religion, and a man would get nearer to God by abiding by its precepts, than by any other book." (History Of The Church, Vol. IV, p.461). Yet, in spite of this, literally thousands of changes have been made from the first edition to current editions-many of these changes in the text itself.

About ten years ago Jack Free of Ontario, Oregon compared a first edition reprint (which I also have in my library) of the Book of Mormon with a current edition. He tabulated 12,349 changes! The tragedy of it all is that several hundred thousand people are casting their eternal salvation on the claim of a nineteenth century man to being a prophet of God. Precious souls hang in the balance, and I would not want to stand in the place of that imposter of a man when the judgement comes. The Book of Mormon cannot be true unless the Bible is true, but if the Bible is true-because of its very nature and claims and warnings, the Book of Mormon and all other professed revelations must be false.

MORMON ORGANIZATION

To give you some idea how far removed from the New Testament pattern the Mormon Church is, here is a brief depicture of the organization of the Utah Mormon Church:

They have two orders of the priesthood, the Melchizedek (the higher order) and the Aaronic (the lower). The Melchizedek Priesthood holds the power of the presidency and authority over various offices of the Church. Its members hold authority to officiate in all the "ordinances of the gospel." From higher to lower its offices are apostles, patriarchs, high priests, seventies and elders. The apostles are "special witnesses of Christ," and there are only twelve of these at a time. The patriarchs or evangelists have the duty of blessing the members; a presiding patriarch has the power to "bless or curse, to bind or loose on earth" and is a prophet, seer and revelator. The high priests are for a standing presidency and service. The elders have authority to bless children and take charge of meetings (there are 96 in a quorum). The seventies are travelling elders and are arranged in groups or quorums of 70; they work under the general direction of the twelve apostles and are presided over by seven presidents of equal rank among their number.

The Aaronic Priesthood is said to guide the temporal affairs of the church. Its offices in a descending scale are bishops, priests, teachers and deacons. One may become a deacon at age twelve (boys only); deacons are grouped in quorums of 12, presided over by one of the number serving as their president. Teachers are grouped in quorums of 24. The priests, who preach and teach, have 48 to a quorum.

Local congregations are wards, and each ward is headed by a bishop. Wards are grouped together into stakes, and each stake is headed by a high priest who in this capacity is called the president of the stake. Many stakes also include missions, which are not self-sustaining wards yet. The stake presidents and ward bishops, along with patriarchs, high priests and elders supervise the work within the various stakes and wards.

The council of the twelve apostles, chosen by "revelation," supervises (under the direction of the First Presidency) the whole work of the Church and ordains all "ministers."