The Cross Newsletter

December 2023

OUR WAREHOUSE OF LITERATURE

AVAILABLE FOR YOUR QUICK UNDERSTANDING

OF LDS (MORMON) BELIEFS

Concerned Christians has an extensive inventory of helpful literature available for you! I will be reviewing this literature each month in our newsletter.

One of the most helpful quick references available in Concerned Christian’s warehouse is:

BASIC TEACHINGS OF THE CHURCH OF JESUS CHRIST OF LATTER-DAY SAINTS.

It is a pocket sized (4”x7”) blue paper bifold. The first panel asks you to find answers in the Bible and the Book of Mormon for 15 statements involved in Mormon ‘theology’. It is an exercise in futility, solved when you turn the page.

On the top of the second panel, it tells you that the Bible and the Book of Mormon do not support these 15 statements at all. ALL of these are fundamental beliefs in the LDS religious system.

The LDS support for all 15 statements are not found in the Book of Mormon. They are found in further additions in ‘Doctrine and Covenants’ and instructive writings by later Mormon leaders, but not in the Book of Mormon.

The Book of Mormon was presented to the public by Joseph Smith and another associate in 1830. When it was presented, Joseph Smith attested that the Book of Mormon is the “fullness of the everlasting gospel” (Doctrine and Covenants 27:5, 135:3). If it is the “fullness of the everlasting gospel” why were so many additions necessary after ‘The Prophet’ had passed?

The third panel is Biblical evidence that each of the 15 statements are not supported anywhere in God’s Word.  

If this primary LDS information is not contained in the ‘fullness of the gospel’ it leads one to examine the LDS material in light of the Apostle Paul’s statement in Galatians 1:7-9 : Evidently some people are throwing you into confusion and are trying to pervert the gospel of Christ. But even if we or an angel from heaven should preach a gospel other than the one we preached to you, let them be under God’s curse! As we have already said, so now I say again: If anybody is preaching to you a gospel other than what you accepted, let them be under God’s curse!

According to Paul, Joseph Smith and all his leadership followers who wrote LDS theology fall under God’s curse.

The last panel of this pamphlet is a summation of how we find true salvation according to God.

This pamphlet is a helpful tool for those not familiar to LDS theology.

Contact us to receive your copy without charge at:

Phone: 480.833.2537

Text: 480.209.8279

Email: [email protected]

Gary Keating

General Manager

We at Concerned Christians meet every MONDAY evening for an hour of prayer at 6:30 p.m. If you are not local, please set that time aside to  voice your concerns from your prayer space. If you are local and would like to attend, we ask you to call 480-833-2537 for directions. We truly look forward to meeting and praying with you in the War Room. We ask that you add Concerned Christians to your prayer list along with any other Mormon witnessing group you are familiar. The importance of intercessory prayer cannot be stressed enough. We have seen God grant many blessings to us over the years. If you have a ministry related request please send us a short email.     [email protected]

 “We always thank God for all of you and continually mention you in our prayers.”    

 I Thessalonians 1:2  

We pray for opportunities to speak with Christians because we firmly believe “It is easier to keep them out than to get them out.”

If you would be interested in sharing your testimony of being delivered from the LDS Corporation into the family of the triune God, please send it to [email protected] Please include contact information.

Here we are at the end of the year. I sincerely hope you made time to read your Bible daily. If not you have plenty of time to find a plan and a Bible you like to start off 2024. Most Bibles even have a plan inside to help you.

Here’s to a Blessed Holiday Season and a Merry Christmas to you all!

Paulette

THE TABERNACLE, THE TEMPLES,

AND A CHRISTIAN’S BODY

What do all three have in common?

Since the beginning of Creation recorded in Genesis 1-3, the pinnacle of Creation was not the vast universe extending to infinity with solar systems and galaxies; it was not the development of the specially designed earth, with controlled extreme hot and cold temperatures that would sustain life-forms of animals and plants; it was not the continents which had various unique different animal and plant life designs. The PINNACLE of God’s Creation was MANKIND, male and female (Genesis 1:26-3:24).

God (YHWH His name in Hebrew) spends approximately 525 years populating the earth. From this population He chooses a group of immigrants from the land of Canaan who settled in Egypt. These became the nation of Israel. God always stayed with his chosen people. Initially His presence was represented by a pillar of fire by night and pillar of cloud by day (Exodus 13:17-22).

THE TABERNACLE

(Ca. 1525 B.C.)

God forms a Covenant with his chosen people, directing them to make a Tabernacle, that is a moving place which becomes the center of the various encampments. Details for the Tabernacle are provided in Exodus 25-31:11. The construction began in Exodus 35-40:33. God’s presence filled the Tabernacle in Exodus 40:34-35. From this moment forward, the children of Israel would meet in the outer court of the Tabernacle. Only the High Priest was allowed to enter the Holy of Holies where God’s PRESENCE abided. Contact and communication with God went through the priests. Even though God’s PRESENCE was there, a separation with the people remained.

THE TEMPLE

(Ca. 1000 B.C.)

Since the nation of Israel had been established upon moving into the Promised Land, the mobile Tabernacle was no longer needed (1 Chronicles 23:24-27). King David wished to build a temple for the Lord God, but he was denied by God because he had shed blood during war efforts (1 Chronicles 28:2-8).

The job of erecting the Temple for God fell upon his son, King Solomon (1 Kings 5:1-5). Again, the structure was to be built in a specific, God directed, manner (1 Kings 5:10-9:25). Like the Tabernacle, the structure was similar in design but permanently attached to the ground. Again, God’s PRESENCE was in the Holy of Holies and approached only by the High Priest once a year. Contact with God also went through the priests.

During both these periods of time the Holy Spirit appeared only in special circumstances with a particular goal, working through a particular person. He, the Holy Spirit, was not available to the children of Israel on a personal level. God’s direct daily interaction was limited.

A CHRISTIAN’S BODY

(Ca. 30)

The Old Testament had been predicting the coming of the Messiah since the first Covenant with Moses. It had been pointing forward to something new and improved in the Law, the Prophets, and the Psalms.

Two of my favorite Old Testament prophecies are found in Isaiah. The first one is Isaiah 7:13-15, where God predicts the Messiah’s birth. The second passage is Isaiah 53. This whole chapter is an advanced picture of the Messiah. In today’s language we would call it a ‘trailer’. This happened around 700 years before the Messiah was born.

God desired an intimate personal connection with all who chose to belong to Him. He planned to bring this about through His son, The Messiah! His son, Jesus, was born in the exact manner predicted by Isaiah. Not a detail was missing. Here is how it happened.

FIRST, In John 1:1-14, John begins his Gospel by sharing “In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God and the Word was God”. At the end of the passage John continues, The Word became flesh and made his dwelling place among us. We have seen his glory, the glory of the one and only Son, who came from the Father, full of grace and truth”.

We know from this passage that the Word, who is identified as God’s son, is with God. He is commissioned by his Father to come to earth, living in the flesh.

SECOND, John, just before Jesus death, tells about Jesus’ meeting with his followers. He shares with them about his upcoming demise. In John 14:5-21 Jesus declares, “I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me. – – – And I will ask the Father, and he will give you another advocate to help you and be with you forever—the Spirit of truth. The world cannot accept him, because it neither sees him nor knows him”

It is learned from this passage and scriptures in the other three gospels that Jesus is commissioned to be the ‘perfect lamb’ sacrificed in order that his blood might cover the sins of all who accept the Son as their savior. He is the promised Messiah who changed God’s PRESENCE in the world.

THIRD, after Jesus dies and is resurrected, he meets with his disciples on a mountain near Bethany. He instructs them to go and make disciples of all nations but first wait in Jerusalem for ‘power from on high’. (Luke 24:45-49, Acts 2:1-4).

God’s PRESENCE was now passed to the Apostles and disciples by way of the Holy Spirit. Once Jesus was resurrected, God was now with ALL his followers by way of the Holy Spirit. After the miraculous empowering of the Holy Spirit for the inner circle of Jesus’ followers, others became believers and wanted to know what to do to be saved. Peter told them “Repent and be baptized, every one of you, in the name of Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of your sins. And you will receive the gift of the Holy Spirit.”

The Apostle Paul in 1 Corinthians 6:19-20 said, “Do you not know that your bodies are temples of the Holy Spirit, who is in you, whom you have received from God? You are not your own; you were bought at a price. Therefore, honor God with your bodies.”

When Scripture says you are a temple of the Holy Spirit, it is saying that God’s Spirit lives in you, but it is saying much more than that. God is living with you.

The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints theology, developed by Joseph Smith and others, has completely missed the point of what God is doing. He was not saying you need a legal system like the Law of Moses. He was not saying you need a priesthood. He was not saying you needed to work out your salvation through temple rituals and systematic requirements.

God was saying, ‘I wish my PRESENCE to be with my followers everyday of their lives. I wish to be with them through their ups and downs. HE DID THIS BY MAKING US HIS TEMPLE. Buildings are just meeting places. Sanctuaries, therefore, are the saints themselves.

The LDS Corporation is spending billions of dollars building what God has called OBSOLETE.

Live as though you are representing God because you are!

With Christian love,

Gary Keating

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