Deceptive Methods of Evangelism

or Lying to Gain Converts

Most false religions or cults have teachings that they are trying to hide from the general public and their potiential converts. The following summaries show you specifically how these groups decieve those who might be investigating them with the intent to join.


Mormonism

No where in any of their six missionary discussions will they tell you that they teach and believe that MEN can become Gods or that they believe God was once a man or that they believe that there are many Gods existing out there in space somewhere. This is why the first video to expose their false teachings was called "The Godmakers." If you ask a Mormon the direct question, "Do you believe that you can become a God?" They will almost always say, "No. We believe that you can become LIKE God." If you ask them if God used to be a mortal man, they usually answer, "We don't really know, or that's some deep doctrine and we really just don't know." If you ask them if they believe that there are many gods existing out there in space somewhere, they almost always answer, "No, We only worship one God." The only way that you can get them to admit the truth seems to be, quote their founding prophet Joseph Smith and other Mormon Appostles and prophets. The following are a collection of some of the more usefull of their quotes:

Joseph Smith Jr. - founder of Mormonism - plainly introducing new doctrine:
God an Exalted Man
"I will go back to the beginning before the world was, to show what kind of being God is. What sort of a being was God in the beginning? Open your ears and hear, all ye ends of the earth, for I am going to prove it to you by the Bible, and to tell you the designs of God in relation to the human race, and why He interferes with the affairs of man. God himself was once as we are now, and is an exalted man, and sits enthroned in yonder heavens! That is the great secret. If the veil were rent today, and the great God who holds this world in its orbit, and who upholds all worlds and all things by his power, was to make himself visible, I say, if you were to see him today, you would see him like a man in form like yourselves in all the person, image, and very form as a man; for Adam was created in the very fashion, image and likeness of God, and received instruction from, and walked, talked and conversed with him, as one man talks and communes with another. In order to understand the subject of the dead, for consolation of those who mourn for the loss of their friends, it is necessary we should understand the character and being of God and how he came to be so; for I am going to tell you how God came to be God. We have imagined and supposed that God was God from all eternity. I will refute that idea, and take away the veil, so that you may see. These are incomprehensible ideas to some, but they are simple. It is the first principle of the Gospel to know for a certainty the Character of God, and to know that we may converse with him as one man converses with another, and that he was once a man like us; yea, that God himself, the Father of us all, dwelt on an earth, the same as Jesus Christ himself did; and I will show it from the Bible." Teachings of the Prophet Joseph Smith, General Conference April 1844, p.345

Learn How to Become Gods Yourselves
"Here, then, is eternal life-to know the only wise and true God; and you have got to learn how to be Gods yourselves, and to be kings and priests to God, the same as all Gods have done before you, namely, by going from one small degree to another, and from a small capacity to a great one; from grace to grace, from exaltation to exaltation, until you attain to the resurrection of the dead, and are able to dwell in everlasting burnings, and to sit in glory, as do those who sit enthroned in everlasting power. And I want you to know that God, in the last days, while certain individuals are proclaiming his name, is not trifling with you or me." Teachings of the Prophet Joseph Smith, General Conference April 1844, p.346

A Council of the Gods
"In the beginning, the head of the Gods called a council of the Gods; and they came together and concocted a plan to create the world and people it. When we begin to learn this way, we begin to learn the only true God, and what kind of a being we have got to worship. Having a knowledge of God, we begin to know how to approach him, and how to ask so as to receive an answer. When we understand the character of God, and how to come to him, he begins to unfold the heavens to us, and to tell us all about it. When we are ready to come to him, he is ready to come to us. Now, I ask all who hear me, why the learned men who are preaching salvation, say that God created the heavens and the earth out of nothing? The reason is, that they are unlearned in the things of God, and have not the gift of the Holy Ghost; they account it blasphemy in any one to contradict their idea. If you tell them that God made the world out of something, they will call you a fool. But I am learned, and know more than all the world put together. The Holy Ghost does, anyhow, and He is within me, and comprehends more than all the world: and I will associate myself with Him." Teachings of the Prophet Joseph Smith, General Conference April 1844, p.349-350

Brigham Young - Second Prophet of the Mormon Church
- plainly introducing and continuing new doctrine:

"Suppose that our Father in heaven our Elder Brother, the risen Redeemer, the Savior of the world, or any of the gods of eternity should act upon this principle, to love truth, knowledge, and wisdom, because they are all powerful, and by the aid of this power they could send devils to hell, torment the people of the earth, exercise sovereignty over them, and make them miserable at their pleasure; they would cease to be Gods; and as fast as they adopted and acted upon such principles, they would become devils, and be thrust down in the twinkling of an eye; the extension of their kingdom would cease, and their Godhead come to an end." Discourses of Brigham Young, p.10 from JOD Vol.1 p.117.

"The great architect, manager and superintendent, controller and dictator who guides this work is out of sight to our natural eyes. He lives on another world; he is in another state of existence; he has passed the ordeals we are now passing through; he has received an experience, has suffered and enjoyed, and knows all that we know regarding the toils, sufferings, life and death of this mortality, for he has passed through the whole of it, and has received his crown and exaltation and holds the keys and the power of this Kingdom; he sways his scepter, and does his will among the children of men, among Saints and among sinners, and brings forth results to suit his purpose among kingdoms and nations and empires, that all may redound to his glory and to the perfection of his work." Discourses of Brigham Young, p.22, from JOD Vol.11 p.249.

"How many Gods there are, I do not know. But there never was a time when there were not Gods and worlds, and when men were not passing through the same ordeals that we are now passing through. That course has been from all eternity, and it is and will be to all eternity. You cannot comprehend this, but when you can, it will be to you a matter of great consolation." Discourses of Brigham Young, p.22 23, From JOD vol.7 p.333.

Lorenzo Snow - Fifth Prophet of the Mormon Church
- plainly explaining that God used to be a man, and men may become Gods:

Chapter 1
As God Is, Man May Be
"Be as great as you want to be. You who have aspirations to be great-and there is no wrong in that-should realize... the support that you should give to those over you, so that when you are placed in responsible positions you may demand of the Lord the faith and support of the people. You will all be great someday, as great as you want to be. I remember an incident which occurred in Kirtland when I received my first patriarchal blessing from Father Smith. A better man never existed, nor was there a man better-loved than he. I was introduced by my sister Eliza R., though at that time I was not a Latter-day Saint and had no idea of becoming one. He said to me: 'Don't worry, take it calmly and the Lord will show you, and you will want to be baptized," He told me another thing that greatly surprised me. He said, 'You will be great, and as great as you want to be, as great as God Himself, and you will not wish to be greater.' I could not understand this, but years after in Nauvoo while talking upon a Principle of the gospel, the Spirit of God rested powerfully upon me and showed me more clearly than I can now see your faces a certain principle and its glory, and it came to me summarized in this brief sentence:

'As man is now, God once was; as God is now man may be.'

The Spirit of God was on me in a marvelous manner all that day, and I stored that great truth away in my mind. I felt that I had learnt something that I ought not to communicate to others." Teachings of Lorenzo Snow, p.1, from Deseret News-June 15, 1901, p.1

Gorden B Hinkley - Current Prophet of the Mormon Church - trying to avoid telling the plain truth (Double talk?):
"Hinkley was interviewed last month in his room at the Santa Clara Marriott Hotel just before he delivered an address to the World Forum of Silicon Valley.

Q: There are some significant differences in your beliefs. For instance, don't Mormons believe that God was once a man?

A: I wouldn't say that. There was a litle couplet coined, 'As man is, God once was. As God is, man may become.' Now that's more of a couplet than anything else. That gets into some pretty deep theology that we don't know very much about.

Q: So you're saying the church is still struggling to understand this?

A: Well, as God is, man may become. We believe in eternal progression. Very srongly. We believe that the glory of God is intelligence and whatever principle of intelligence we attain unto in this life, it will rise with us in the Resurrection. Knowledge, learning, is an eternal thing. And for that reason, we stress education. We're trying to do all we can to make of our people the ablest, best, brightest people that we can."

Q: One of the other things I think people are curious about in the Mormon Church are the temple rites, and why they are kept so secret.

A: Sacred.

Q: Sacred, but closed off to outsiders. I can't think ofany other religion that has such secrecy about its temple rites.

A: When we build a temple, we invite people to come. They come in largenumbers. We'll be dedicating the St. Louis temple this coming May. Before we dedicate that, we'll have an open house. There will be hundreds of thousands of people go through that temple. Anybody and everybody. (Laughter) The curious and everybody else. And they are free to ask aany quesrions about it, anything they'd like to ask. After its dedicated, then it becomes endowed with a particular sanctity, as we view it. And it becomes available then only to those who are qualified to enter the temple." ('The San Francisco Chronicle' newspaper Sunday, April 13, 1997 * Page 3/z1)

"In an interview with Time [Magazine], President Hinkley seemed intent on downplaying his faith's distinctiveness. At first Hinkley seemed to qualify the idea that men could become Gods, suggesting that 'It's of course an ideal. It's a hope for a wishfull thing,' but later affirmed that, 'Yes of course they can.' (He added that women could too, 'as companions to their husbands. They can't consieve a king without a queen.') On wheather his church still holds that God the Father was once a man, he sounded uncertain, 'I don't know that we teach it. I don't know that we emphasize it... I understand the philosophical backround behind it, but I don't know a lot about it, and I don't think others know a lot about it.'" Interview by David Van Beima in Time August 25, 1997 p.56