Bless me or bless the Father?

Bless me or bless the Father?

 

Psalms 103: 1 A Psalm of David.

Bless the Lord, O my soul; 

And all that is within me, bless His holy name!

2 Bless the Lord, O my soul, 

And forget not all His benefits:

3 Who forgives all your iniquities,

Who heals all your diseases,

4 Who redeems your life from destruction,

Who crowns you with lovingkindness and tender mercies,

5 Who satisfies your mouth with good things,

So that your youth is renewed like the eagle's.

 

Many Christians have been taught that God desires to bless his children with wealth, healing, as well as power. Although it is true that God desires to bless those who are faithful to Him, our heavenly Father does not want to spoil us. Many people pray bless me, bless me, but never consider how they may bless God. We should not seek after earthly riches, but heavenly riches.

 

 Many of the television evangelists and mega-church leaders live in mansions, drive luxury cars, and steal millions of dollars from their supporters. I have shared my faith with many people on the streets, in stores, as well as churches. The majority of unbelievers that I have spoken with bring up the lavish lifestyle of tv preachers. They claim that Christianity is all about greed, and they want no part of it. I sadly agree with them that the apostate religious leaders on tv represent greed, and not God. The preachers of the prosperity gospel are shutting people out of the kingdom of heaven. The world is repulsed by the riches that they heap upon themselves, as well as their weird hairdos, makeup, and the thrones that they sit upon. If the world can see through their deception, why are many in the church blind to it?

 

 The false prophets on tv tell people to give a thousand dollars, or more, and God will bless them with riches also. They tell people with large credit card debt to send them a large offering, by putting more debt upon their card and God will bless them. Christians need to learn how to bless God, as well as others, and to walk in humility. God desires for his children to have a servant’s heart, not to seek after power, position, or wealth.  

 

God’s Word teaches us that the love of money is the root of all kinds of evil. God’s Word tells us to lay up treasure in heaven, not the earth. However, God does choose to bless some with wealth, so that they may benefit others, as well as his true ministry. Job, David, Solomon, Hezekiah, Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, are examples of those blessed for their faithfulness to God. If you have been blessed monetarily in this life, God expects you to share what you have with those in need. If you neglect to feed the hungry, clothe the naked, visit the sick and prisoner, God will say to you on that day, depart from me you worker of iniquity, I never knew you.

 

When we give a cup of cold water, or food, to those in need, we bless the Lord. When we are obedient to the Lord and love one another, we also bless the Lord. If you want to bless the Lord, share your faith with others, and more importantly, live your faith by meeting their needs. If the church was willing to, it could wipe out hunger in the world, instead of supporting dead ministries.

 

The early Apostles were not rich in earthly terms, but were rich in spirit and deed. They did not live in palaces, or have fine things. They were often hungry, destitute, as well as persecuted; however, they learned the secret of being content in all things. We should follow their example, and seek first the Kingdom of God. Please consider the scriptures listed below.

 

1 Timothy 6:6 Now godliness with contentment is great gain.  7 For we brought nothing into this world, and it is certain we can carry nothing out.  8 And having food and clothing, with these we shall be content.  9 But those who desire to be rich fall into temptation and a snare, and into many foolish and harmful lusts which drown men in destruction and perdition.  10 For the love of money is a root of all kinds of evil, for which some have strayed from the faith in their greediness, and pierced themselves through with many sorrows.

 

Matt 6:24 “No one can serve two masters; for either he will hate the one and love the other, or else he will be loyal to the one and despise the other. You cannot serve God and mammon (money).

 

 Matt 19:21 Jesus said to him, “If you want to be perfect, go, sell what you have and give to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven; and come, follow Me.” 22 But when the young man heard that saying, he went away sorrowful, for he had great possessions.

Matt 19:23 Then Jesus said to His disciples, “Assuredly, I say to you that it is hard for a rich man to enter the kingdom of heaven.  24 And again I say to you, it is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for a rich man to enter the kingdom of God.”

 

James 5:1 Come now, you rich, weep and howl for your miseries that are coming upon you!  2 Your riches are corrupted, and your garments are moth-eaten.  3 Your gold and silver are corroded, and their corrosion will be a witness against you and will eat your flesh like fire. You have heaped up treasure in the last days.  4 Indeed the wages of the laborers who mowed your fields, which you kept back by fraud, cry out; and the cries of the reapers have reached the ears of the Lord of Sabaoth.  5 You have lived on the earth in pleasure and luxury; you have fattened your hearts as in a day of slaughter.

 

 

 

 

Was Joseph Smith a Prophet of God?

 

Was Joseph Smith a Prophet of God?

 

(2 Peter 2:1) But there were also false prophets among the people, even as there will be false teachers among you, who will secretly bring in destructive heresies, even denying the Lord who bought them, and bring on themselves swift destruction. 2 And many will follow their destructive ways, because of whom the way of truth will be blasphemed. 3 By covetousness they will exploit you with deceptive words; for a long time their judgment has not been idle, and their destruction does not slumber.

 

God’s Word warns us that there will be many false prophets and false teachers who will secretly bring in destructive heresies. They will exploit many with deceptive words. For this reason, Christians need to test the spirit by the Word of God. Any so-called prophet or teacher who teaches doctrine contrary to the Holy Bible is not of God.

 

The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints, also known as the Mormons, is a non-Christian cult that teaches heretical beliefs. The LDS church teaches that the Holy Bible is inaccurate as well as incomplete, and the Book of Mormon teaches sound doctrine. Joseph Smith Jr. (December 23, 1805 – June 27, 1844) is the founder of the LDS church and is worshipped as their prophet. Smith was born in Sharon, Vermont. By 1817, he had moved with his family to western New York, an area of intense religious revivalism during the Second Great Awakening. According to Smith, he experienced a series of visions, including one in which he saw "two personages" (presumably God the Father and Jesus Christ) and others in which an angel directed him to a buried book of golden plates inscribed with a history of an ancient American civilization. In 1830, Smith published what he said was an English translation of these plates, the Book of Mormon. The same year he organized the Church of Christ, calling it a restoration of the early Christian church. Members of the church were later called "Latter Day Saints,” or "Mormons,” and in 1838 Smith announced a revelation that renamed the church as the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints.

 

The LDS church teaches that God the Father was once a man like us. They claim the Father lived on a planet on the other side of the sun. According to Mormon beliefs, the Father and his many wives procreated spirit babies (angels). One third of his spirit children followed his son Jesus, one third Lucifer, and one third were undecided who to follow. The one third of the angels, who were undecided, was sent to earth as humans, to learn about good and evil. They claim that Mormons will all become gods in the afterlife. If a Mormon man is pleased with his wife, or wives, then he has the option of calling her to heaven. A married woman is not allowed to enter the celestial kingdom without the permission of her husband.

 

They claim that all humans will enter one, of three levels of heaven upon death. The high heaven is the celestial kingdom, inhabited by many gods. Hell is reserved for sons of perdition, people who departed from the LDS church. If you enter the celestial kingdom, you will become a god, equal to the Father and Christ. You will then have the power of creation, and will have many spirit children, with your many wives. You will then create your own planet, and send your children there if you wish. Mormonism teaches that the Garden of Eden was in Jackson county Missouri, and originally taught that Christ will rule the kingdom of Zion from there. However, the LDS church has moved Christ’s capital to Salt Lake City Utah, but the RLDS church, and it’s offspring, still claim that it will be Missouri. God’s Word teaches that, Christ will rule his kingdom from Mount Zion, in Jerusalem. Genesis mentions the river Euphrates watering the Garden of Eden. The Euphrates River flows through Syria, Iraq, and Kuwait, not Missouri.

 

The Holy Bible teaches that the Father is an Omni-present Spirit, and He was never human. Jesus Christ is the bodily form of God and walked the earth in human form. There is only one God, who is not bound to locality, and He manifests himself three ways, Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. Man is the creation of God, and it is the lie of Satan to claim that humans can become gods. The serpent lied to Eve in the Garden of Eden and said to her, “Eat of this fruit and you will be like God, having the knowledge of good and evil.” The same lie of the serpent is taught by the Mormon Church and her offspring. The Mormons also claim that Jesus and Lucifer are brothers. God’s Word teaches that Jesus Christ is the creator of all things visible and invisible. Christ was never an angel, but is the creator of the angels. Jesus Christ is the creator of Lucifer, not his brother as the Mormons claim. The scriptures listed, reveal what God’s Word teaches about Christ, in regard to angels.

 

(Hebrews 1:1) God, who at various times and in various ways spoke in time past to the fathers by the prophets,
² has in these last days spoken to us by His Son, whom He has appointed heir of all things, through whom also He made the worlds;
³ who being the brightness of His glory and the express image of His person, and upholding all things by the word of His power, when He had by Himself purged our sins, sat down at the right hand of the Majesty on high,
⁴ having become so much better than the angels, as He has by inheritance obtained a more excellent name than they.
⁵ For to which of the angels did He ever say: "You are My Son, Today I have begotten You"?
And again: "I will be to Him a Father, And He shall be to Me a Son"?
⁶ But when He again brings the firstborn into the world, He says: "Let all the angels of God worship Him."
⁷ And of the angels He says: "Who makes His angels spirits And His ministers a flame of fire."
⁸ But to the Son He says: "Your throne, O God, is forever and ever; A scepter of righteousness is the scepter of Your Kingdom.
⁹ You have loved righteousness and hated lawlessness; Therefore God, Your God, has anointed You With the oil of gladness more than Your companions."

 

(Colossians 1:13) He has delivered us from the power of darkness and conveyed us into the kingdom of the Son of His love, 14 in whom we have redemption through His blood, the forgiveness of sins. 15 He is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn over all creation. 16 For by Him all things were created that are in heaven and that are on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or dominions or principalities or powers. All things were created through Him and for Him. 17 And He is before all things, and in Him all things consist.

 

Here is the history of the false prophet Joseph Smith. Smith became interested in religion by the age of twelve. As a teenager, he became interested in Methodism. Smith, as well as other family members, engaged in religious folk magic, which was a relatively common practice in that time and area. Both his parents and his maternal grandfather reportedly had visions or dreams that they believed communicated messages from God. In 1820, while praying in a wooded area near his home, he said that God, in a vision, had told him his sins were forgiven and that all churches had "turned aside from the gospel."

 

During a time of financial hardship, Smith’s family members supplemented their meager farm income by hiring out for odd jobs and working as treasure seekers, a type of magical occultism common during the period. Smith was said to have an ability to locate lost items by looking into a seer stone, which he also used in treasure hunting.  In 1826, Smith was brought before a Chenango County court for "glass-looking" or pretending to find lost treasure. Magic, necromancy, and soothsaying are occultist practices condemned by the Bible as being demonic. The LDS church was founded by a false prophet who used magical occultism, as well as lies, to deceive his victims.

 

 

Smith claimed that he was visited by an angel named Moroni, while praying one night in 1823.  Smith claimed the angel Moroni was the spirit of a deceased American Indian. Smith said that this angel revealed the location of a buried book made of golden plates, as well as other artifacts, including a breastplate and two seer stones set in a frame (urim and thummim), which had been hidden in a hill near his home. He said the angel commanded him not to show the plates to anyone else, but to translate them and publish their translation. Smith said the translation was a religious record of indigenous Americans, and were engraved in an unknown language, called reformed Egyptian. Smith claimed that he was capable of reading and translating the plates through the seer stones.

 

Martin Harris was Smith’s scribe. Harris convinced Smith to let him take the existing 116 pages of manuscript to show a few family members, including his wife. Harris lost the manuscript, of which there was no other copy. As punishment for losing the manuscript, Smith said that the angel returned and took away the plates, and revoked his ability to translate. During this period, Smith briefly attended Methodist meetings with his wife, until a cousin of hers objected to a "practicing necromancer" on the Methodist church roll. Later, the angel returned the plates to Smith. A group of Eight Witnesses composed of male members of the Whitmer and Smith families issued a statement that they had been shown the golden plates by Smith. According to Smith, the angel Moroni took the plates back to heaven once Smith finished using them. This was obviously a lie concocted by Smith and the eight men.

 

Smith owned several mummies from Egypt. He claimed that one of his mummies was Abraham. He claimed to have translated the symbols on the wrapping cloth of the mummy. Smith wrote the book of Abraham from the translated symbols. In modern times, the LDS Church had an Egyptologist translate the writings on the mummies wrapping cloth. The translation revealed that the mummy was an Egyptian girl, not the Patriarch Abraham. Yet the Mormon Church has not revoked the Book of Abraham. Abraham, as well as his descendants the Hebrews, did not practice mummification. My final response, to the ridiculous theology of Joseph Smith Jr. are the listed scriptures.

 

(1 John 4:1) Beloved, do not believe every spirit, but test the spirits, whether they are of God; because many false prophets have gone out into the world.

 

(Matt 24:24)For false christs and false prophets will rise and show great signs and wonders to deceive, if possible, even the elect.