You shall not bow down to their gods,
Nor serve them, nor
do according to
Their works; but you
shall utterly
Overthrow them and
completely
Break down their
sacred pillars.
Exodus 23:24
Then it shall be, if
you by any
Means forget the LORD
your God,
And follow after
other gods,
And serve them and
worship them,
I testify against you
this day
That you shall surely
perish.
Deuteronomy 8:19
While the
above Scriptures were written to the Israelites they have an extended
application for God does not have one command for certain people and another
command for another. God’s commands are applicable to all people for God is not
mutable, He is immutable and all He commands and requires is fit for all
people. Therefore, those words to not become associated with other gods, is a
command for us in this present age. For the Israelites to follow after other
gods would mean that they would perish as a nation and this is historically
true; they did go into captivity, and furthermore they committed atrocious
crimes of murder as well as religious practices that were not in align with the
true God and Creator, the God who had delivered them from the hand of the
Egyptians after forty years of enslavement. If a person follows after other
gods today they too will not enjoy the blessings of God and those to whom other
gods are their gods, they will perish, not in captivity, rather to be destroyed
on the Last Day in Gehenna. God kept His promise to deliver the Israelites from
their captors and this He did, and He will keep His promise to return to gather
His people and to bring final judgment upon those who would never accept Him
and would follow after other gods.
Men and
women have within them the knowledge that there is a God and this is due to the
fact that the image of God was placed in man and is in their nature even in
their fallen nature. Any perusal of the nations in this world, whether it is on
continents or islands, wherever, there will be found a people who have a
god(s). Some men will ignore their very God given nature and refuse to accept
that there is a God and are atheistic, but this is not to say in fact that
there is no God, it is to say that they will not believe in God. Men have
formed many ideas as to a god(s) and have devised many such theologies as they
have a mind to do, and even have formed and idea of an unknown god just to
cover all the bases: “Then Paul stood in the midst of the Areopeagus and
said, ‘Men of Athens, I perceive that in all things you are very religions; for
as I was assign through and considering the objects of your worship, I even
found an altar with this inscription: TO THE UNKNOWN GOD’”(Acts 17:22–23a).
It is not that men are not religious, they are, they have a god, or gods, to
whom they give solemn worship and their lives and cultures are built upon their
philosophies, ideologies, and theologies. It is no different today for men have
devised a god that best suits what they want God to be for them and not what
God truly is and who He truly is; the Greeks had many gods and were influential
in their philosophical and religious views which are in great affect in our
present age. One such religious group in our present age is Mormonism who when
examined that their religiosity is formed from much of ancient Greek theology
and philosophy. When I give the account of those Greek philosophers I will show
that they held to a religious form that is of a plurality of gods, not just one
God. Mormons may cavil at this fact that they believe in a plurality of gods,
or that God was once a man but in their ignorance they ignore what has been the
teachings of Mormonism. An examination of the “Journal and Discourses (JOD) ant
the teachings of Joseph Smith Jr. (TPJS) will show recorded that on April 6,
1844, Joseph Smith Jr. preached to a congregation saying, “Here then is eternal
life – to know the only wise and true God, and you have to learn how to be Gods
yourselves, and to kings and priests to God the same as all Gods have done
before you” (JOD 6:4; TPJS p.346). It was Brigham Young who claimed to be a
prophet and president of the Mormon Church in his message delivered in the Salt
Lake Tabernacle on August 8, 1852, where he affirmed the teaching of Joseph
Smith Jr. when he stated: “The Lord created you and me for the purpose of
becoming Gods like Himself” (JOD 3:93). The Mormons teach their belief that God
the Father is a physical being of “flesh and bones.”[1]
They teach that the God of the Bible who is called Elohim is this God the
Father who is of “flesh and bones and was once a mortal man who has undergone a
process whereby is became an exalted being.[2]
According to this teaching God “once was a man like one of us and…once dwelled
on an earth the same as Jesus Christ himself did in the flesh and like us”[3]
In Homer’s
Illiad we find this plurality of gods and the anthropomorphizing of god(s). To
them all gods were manlike and came down into the world of man to contend with
man in wars, and in every day life, marrying and having children, who were
prayed to for help and guidance, to be delivered from Hades and place of
torment. Do not misunderstand this word, Hades, and acquaint the belief of the
Greeks and their conception of Hades with this word used in the Bible for the
word Hades is a Greek word depicting death and a place where no man wished to
go, with the Biblical word Gehenna, a place of utter destruction and removal
from the face of God. Greek is Greek, so the word in Greek, Hades was used to
teach that there is a place where men go in death, we call that word “hell,” in
English, a word that is aligned with the Hebrew word “Sheol.” Jesus give
validity to this fact that the “Lake of Fire” mentioned in Revelation is what
the Hebrews would easily have known as the Valley of Hinnom, place where
brimstone, sulphur were burned day and night consuming trash and even evil men
who where determined not fit for “Sheol,” or burial: The words of Jesus: “But
I say to you, everyone who is angry with his brother without a cause shall be
liable to the Judgment. And whoever says to his brother, Raca, shall be liable
to the Sanhedrin; but whoever says, Fool! Shall be liable to be thrown into the
fire of Hell” (ἐγὼ δὲ λέγω ὑμῖν ὅτι πᾶς ὁ ὀργιζόμενος τῷ ἀδελφῷ αὐτοῦ εἰκῆ ἔνοχος ἔσται τῇ κρίσει· ὃς δ' ἂν εἴπῃ τῷ ἀδελφῷ αὐτοῦ, Ῥακά, ἔνοχος ἔσται τῷ συνεδρίῳ· ὃς δ' ἂν εἴπῃ, Μωρέ,
ἔνοχος ἔσται εἰς τὴν γέενναν
τοῦ πυρός; I marked the word Geheena in
red). The Illiad give proof of this plurality of gods: “Goddess,” answered
Achilles, “however angry a man may be, he must do as you two commanded him.
This will be best, for the gods ever hear the prayers of him who has obeyed
them.” He stayed his hand on the silver hilt of his sword, and thrust it back
into the scabbard as Mirerva bade him. Then she went back to Olympus among the
other gods, and to the house of aegis-bearing Jove” (Illiad book 1; italics mine).
This plurality of gods as in the religion of the Greeks are to be found in many
religious beliefs as with the Mormons who while claiming to be “Christian” have
done nothing more that added to their religious beliefs the paganism of the
Greeks.
I took the time to show that the
teachings of the ancients have meaning in our world today leading men and women
away from the true God Jehovah and making their god to be something other than
the Biblical God. This paganism is the foundation for the philosophies of the
Greeks that have influenced men and women throughout the ages and are found to
have influenced many people in our present day; even in some Churches. Before
we can aid others to know the truth we must come to know what is false and how false
teachings have led people to form their religions. Therefore, in the next blogs
I will discuss some of those men who have had great influence.
Let
all those who seek You
Rejoice and be glad in You;
Lest
such as love Your salvation
Say continually, the Lord
Be
magnified!
Psalm
40:16
Pray
to God for He is Your Salvation
Richard
L. Crumb
[2]
LDS Church (2007). “Chapter 2:
God the Eternal Father,” Teachings of Presidents of the Church:
Joseph Smith, pp. 36–44. Brigham Young,
"Progress
in Knowledge, &c.", Journal of Discourses 7:333 (1859-10-08).
Brigham Young,
"The
Kingdom of God on Earth is a Living, Moving, Effective Institution: We Do Not
Carry It, But It Carries Us", Journal of Discourses 11:249
(1866-06-17). Lorenzo Snow (Clyde J. Williams ed, 1984). The
Teachings of Lorenzo Snow (Salt Lake City, Utah: Bookcraft) pp. 1–2. Milton R.
Hunter (1945). The Gospel Through the Ages (Salt Lake City,
Utah: Stevens and Wallace) p. 104. Marion G.
Romney, Conference
Report (October 1964).
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