Kinsella ~ Another Angel, Another Gospel, Another Prophet

by **Jarhead** Tue Apr 29 2014, 12:42

The Omega Letter Intelligence Digest
Vol: 151 Issue: 29 - Tuesday, April 29, 2014

Another Angel, Another Gospel, Another Prophet . . .

Note: Today's Letter investigates the surprising similarities in two religions. Wendy Wippel's "The End of Until" takes an intricate look at one of God's words.

In the year 610 AD, an itinerant merchant named Mohammed ibn Abdullah was in a cave on Mount Hira, as had become his practice, when the angel Gabriel appeared to him and commanded him to memorize (Mohammed could not write) what Gabriel dictated to him.

According to traditional Muslim history the verses of the Koran were written on palm trees and fiber and memorized during the life of Mohammad and collected shortly after his death. At Medina, about forty companions are believed to have acted as scribes for the Koran.

One thousand, two hundred and ten years later, a young farmer and treasure hunter named Joseph Smith was praying for forgiveness for the “gratification of many appetites” when the Angel Moroni appeared to him and directed him to a buried book of golden plates and a set of silver spectacles with lenses composed of seer stones.

The golden plates contained the religious record of when Jesus appeared to the native American Indians. Smith said he used the seer stones, called Urim and Thummin, for some of the earliest translations.

Later, Smith said he was able to translate the golden plates by reading the reflections in a seer stone at the bottom of a silk top hat. The translation, now known as the Book of Mormon, was published in Palmyra, New York on March 26, 1830.

The Book of Mormon was not well received in Palmyra. Smith and his followers established small churches, known then as the “Church of Christ” but Smith and his followers were soon run out of town ahead of a gathering mob.

During that flight, Smith said he heard the voices of Peter, James and John, who gave Smith and his scribe, Oliver Cowdery, Apostolic authority.

When Mohammed first began to preach his new religion in Mecca, he didn’t win many new converts. But as time went on and Mohammed grew stronger, he and his followers were considered a threat by the local merchants, particularly those of the Quriyash tribe. He was eventually forced to flee from Mecca to Medina.

They fled at first to Kirtland, Ohio, which Smith announced was “the eastern boundary of New Jerusalem” and that the Saints must gather there while Oliver Cowdery headed to Missouri to find New Jerusalem’s true location.

While in Medina, Mohammed’s followers swelled in numbers and soon controlled the city. From there, they began to raid Meccan merchant caravans. The Koranic verses from this period are those that call for religious tolerance and practical issues (like how to divide the spoils of war.)

Smith also dictated a lost "Book of Enoch," telling how the biblical Enoch had established a city of Zion of such civic goodness that God had taken it to heaven. Smith taught that the Book of Mormon was a corrected version of the Old and New Testaments, which Smith claimed had been corrupted by apostate Christians and Jews.

Mohammed’s new religion claimed to be a corrected version of the Old and New Testaments, which Mohammed claimed had been corrupted by apostate Christians and Jews.

While in Kirtland, Smith converted Disciples of Christ Pastor Sidney Rigdon and took over Rigdon’s 100-member-strong congregation.

At Rigdon’s suggestion, Smith began revising the Bible as new converts started pouring into Kirtland. By the summer of 1835, there were fifteen hundred to two thousand Mormons in the vicinity of Kirtland, virtually taking over the town.

About this time, Oliver Cowdery announced he found New Jerusalem was really in Independence, Missouri. There were some disputes, principally surrounding Smith and underage servant girl, Fanny Alger.

Mohammed’s new religion permitted polygamy, deception in the furtherance of Islamic ideals, and forced conversion. Mohammed had thirteen wives, his youngest wife, Aisha, was reputed to be just nine years old.

To reduce the whiff of scandal, Smith declared Fanny Alger was one of his plural wives, introducing the doctrine of polygamy into the Church.

Oliver Cowdery called it a “filthy affair” and threatened to leave the Church. Instead, Smith charged him with slander and excommunicated him.

Later, Smith and Rigdon established a wildcat bank called the Kirtland Safety Society. It failed within a month, wiping out its depositors and investors. They fled in the middle of the night, just ahead of the sheriff bearing an arrest warrant, and headed for Jackson County, Missouri and the New Jerusalem.

There, he renamed his church “the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints.” He also organized a Mormon ‘militia’ called the Danites, to intimidate Mormon dissenters and defend against “anti-Mormon militias.”

The Danites soon expelled all ex-Mormon dissenters from Jackson County, including Oliver Cowdery and his group.

Mohammed eventually made a ten year truce with the Quriyash of Mecca, known as the Treaty of Hudabbiyah. Two years into the truce, Mohammed attacked and destroyed the Quriyash, seized Mecca and imposed the Zakat – a tax imposed on non-Muslims which allowed them to live there without converting to Islam.

In a fiery speech given that fourth of July, Rigdon issued similar threats to non-Mormons in the county, promising them a war of extermination if they attacked the LDS. In 1838, after promising to “establish our religion with the sword” his followers attacked the Missouri State Militia at the Battle of Crooked River.

Governor Boggs ordered all Mormons be “exterminated or driven from the state.” On November 1, 1838, the Saints surrendered to 2,500 state troops, and agreed to forfeit their property and leave the state. Smith was imprisoned, along with Rigdon, in Liberty, Missouri on charges of treason.

Smith and Rigdon escaped after bribing the sheriff, and fled to Nauvoo, Illinois, where Brigham Young had set up a new LDS headquarters.

Nauvoo grew rapidly, and so did LDS doctrine. In Nauvoo, Smith established polygamy as a Mormon doctrine. He established secret ceremonies whereby righteous people could become gods in the afterlife.

Smith also introduced his “First Vision” which later became regarded by the LDS as “the most important event in human history since the resurrection of Jesus.”

In 1844 Joseph Smith and his brother Hyrum were murdered by a mob in Carthage, Illinois while being held on charges of treason. Their deaths caused a succession crisis with Brigham Young assuming command of the LDS and excommunicating the splinter groups that disputed his leadership.

Mohammed died of a fever when he was 63 years old. After his death, a succession dispute caused Islam to split into the Sunni and Shi’ite factions. Islam became the dominant religion everywhere that it went. And everywhere it went, it established itself by war.

As the LDS began taking over Nauvoo, tensions rose with the local Illinois residents. After Smith’s death, Brigham Young and sixty thousand Mormons headed to Utah territory. Brigham Young was appointed Utah’s first territorial governor.

And everywhere that the LDS went, from Palmyra to Kirtland to Nauvoo to Utah, they established their religion by war; the Missouri Mormon War, the “Illinois Mormon War” the “Utah War” the “Morrisite War” and the “Black Hawk War”.

Does anybody else see a pattern of similarity here? Anybody want to hazard a guess as to why?

Assessment:

It is a matter of provable fact that Muslims are allowed to lie to infidels (non-Muslims) if it advances the cause of Islam.   Mormons are also allowed to lie to “gentiles” (or non-Mormons) if it advances the cause of LDS. (Milk before meat.)

Islam doesn’t integrate itself with infidel communities, it establishes itself as a separate entity, and then through proselytizing and intimidation, seeks to dominate and impose its own laws.

LDS pretends to integrate within gentile communities, but immediately establishes itself as a separate entity and then through proselytizing and intimidation, seeks to dominate and impose its own laws.

Both claim a kind of Jesus and a kind of Gospel. Islam claims Isa (Jesus) and the ‘injil´ or ‘gospel’. But Isa is not God, but rather, an exalted prophet, second only to Mohammed. The Islamic “injil”is the “true” gospel of Jesus, before it was corrupted by Christians and Jews.

The LDS claims a kind of Jesus and a kind of Gospel. The LDS Jesus is “a” god, (one of uncounted millions) but the Mormon Jesus is just a man who became a god. And the Mormon Gospel is the Book of Mormon, which the LDS claims is superior in accuracy and doctrinal truth to the Bible.

The Apostle Paul wrote to the members of the Church at Galatia:

“I marvel that ye are so soon removed from him that called you into the grace of Christ unto another gospel: Which is not another; but there be some that trouble you, and would pervert the gospel of Christ.” (Galatians 1:6-7)

Paul is quick to say that while it is ‘another’ gospel, in the sense that it is different, there IS no other Gospel, in the sense that it can be legitimate. The Gospel is the “good news” because it points the way to salvation. There is but one way to salvation, according to John 3:16 and Acts 4:12.

Which is why Paul follows up with this carefully parsed statement;

“But though we, or an angel from heaven, preach any other gospel unto you than that which we have preached unto you, let him be accursed.” (Galatians 1:8)

We’ve been discussing two claimants to the gospel, both of whom received their new gospel directly from an angel; in one case Gabriel, and in the other, Moroni. Each of those conflicting gospels, delivered by angels, claim to the be true Gospel before it was corrupted by Christians and Jews.

Both deny that Jesus Christ has the power to save on His own, unless one also obeys an impossibly complex series of laws and ordinances that by their very existence, make salvation impossible, according to the Scriptures:

“I do not frustrate the grace of God: for if righteousness come by the law, then Christ is dead in vain.”(Galatians 2:21)

If keeping the law was the path to righteousness, then Jesus didn’t have to die. His death and His resurrection advantage us not at all, if our salvation is dependent on keeping the law. That is as it has been since the time of Moses – why add Jesus?

He wasn’t necessary under the Mosaic Law. Why is He necessary to Mormon or to Muslim salvation? Answer: He isn’t. Neither faith requires a Messiah, since in either faith, salvation comes by keeping the Law.

There is another similarity worth exploring Islam had a founder. His name was Mohammed. He died on June 8, 632 and was buried where he died. His tomb is still there, housed within the House of the Prophet in Medina.

The LDS had a founder. His name was Joseph Smith. Smith was shot several times inside his jail cell by an angry mob he had bilked out of a fortune. He died where he fell, and was buried in Nauvoo, Illinois. His tomb is still there.

Christianity had a Founder. His name was Jesus Christ. He was wounded for our transgressions. He was bruised for our iniquities. The chastisement we deserved fell upon Him. And by His stripes we are healed. (Isaiah 53:5)

He died on a Cross at Golgotha, crucified between two thieves. He was buried in the tomb set aside for Joseph of Aramathea. But His tomb is empty. He is not there.

He rose on the third day, was seen of over five hundred witnesses and ascended into Heaven in broad daylight in front of witnesses. If Jesus is not risen, we remain dead in our sins and our faith is in vain.

Why do I risk the wrath of the LDS, not to mention Islam, every liberal on earth, the various self-appointed anti-hate groups, a lot of well-meaning but deceived Christians, and the probability that most ISP’s will bounce today’s OL?

“But I fear, lest by any means, as the serpent beguiled Eve through his subtilty, so your minds should be corrupted from the simplicity that is in Christ.” (2 Corinthians 11:3)

That is the only Gospel. Any other gospel leads people away from the truth and away from salvation. As such, it is accursed, according to the Scripture. Even one revealed by an angel.

The best way to determine the identity of the revealing angel is to compare his ‘truth’ to the simplicity of Christ. The TRUE Gospel is simple. It can be boiled down to just two words:

“Jesus saves.”

by **Tryphosa** Tue Apr 29 2014, 22:38

Simularities are uncanny, thanks JH.

by **Tryphosa** Wed Apr 30 2014, 11:55

Posted this at another place, hope it's ok, thanks JH.

by **Jarhead** Wed Apr 30 2014, 12:42

Fine by me & by the Omega Letter folks!

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Kinsella ~ Another Angel, Another Gospel, Another Prophet

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