It is better to trust
in the LORD
Than to put
confidence in man.
It is better to trust
in the LORD
Than to put
confidence in princes.
Psalm 118:8–9
Teach me, O LORD, the
way
Of Your statutes. And
I shall
Keep it to the end.
Give me
Understanding, and I
shall
Keep Your law;
Indeed, I shall
Observe it with my
whole heart.
Psalm 119:33–34
In every
study that I present there is the goal to aid others in their sanctification,
their walk with the LORD, and to have the love of Jesus Christ as the One who
has the priority in their lives, furthermore, that the Holy Spirit will change
a person from the inside–out! Learning about men who lived in former times and
have had an impact on the world, to have an influence upon the thinking of
people, even those who desire to know and serve God; my desire is not to trust
in those men, rather to learn how they may have impacted your life and my life.
Was it for the good or did such influence be detrimental to our theology? If
so, then, how? In what way? Then if it is so that their influence has caused
many to suppose a theology that is contradictory to Scripture, and if I, or
you, have succumbed to such teaching, how may I, or you, remove this falseness?
Wrong thinking has been the cause for many so–called “Christian” religions that
their theology has have at least some ideology of those philosophers and others
to develop a religion according to those philosophies, and theologies that has
much pagan influence veiled in Christian language. This is misleading to those
seeking the truth. Many have made a choice of ignorance and have been beguiled
thinking that what they have come to believe is the truth. God has recorded for
us these words: “You reject all those who stray from Your statutes, for
their deceit is falsehood. You put away all the wicked of the earth like dross;
therefore I love Your testimonies” (Psalm 119:118–119). This is why this
type of study is so important for as ambassadors of Christ, as those who are to
give a witness for they must witness in truth, to lead people away from false
ideologies, philosophies, and theologies that are in opposition to the will of
God: “I see the treacherous, and am disgusted, because they do not keep Your
word. Consider how I love Your precepts; revive me, O LORD, according to Your lovingkindness.
The entirety of Your word is truth. And every one of Your righteous judgments
endures forever” (Psalm 119:158–160). The truth is in God’s word, therefore
all thoughts must become captive to the words of God, measured by the word of
God and if there is anything said, written, or believed that is not in harmony
with the word of God, then that person when coming to a knowledge of the truth
must make a decision: trust God’s word, or continue in deception and sin. John
the apostle wrote: “Look to yourselves, that we do not lose those things we
worked for, but that we may receive a full reward. Whoever transgresses and
does not abide in the doctrine of Christ does not have God. He who abides in
the doctrine of Christ has both the Father and the Son. If anyone come to you
and does not bring this doctrine, do not receive him into your house no greet
him; for he who greets him shares in his evil deeds” (2John 8–11).
Plato the
philosopher and the Neo–Platonists that came later have had a major impact on
the world and within the Christian circle of theologians, teachers, and
preachers that have had this impact on those who they lead or teach. Plato was
a dualist, a theory that is twofold; and in the metaphysical there is composed a reality of two mutually
irreducible substances, and in theology this dualism is that there are two
eternal principles one good and one evil, or that humans are embodied by both a
fleshly body and a soul. Plato teaches that there is the visible and the
invisible world; that the visible is visible due to an archetype that exists in
the invisible. A chair is a called a chair and there is the reality or
archetype of a chair in the invisible realm and if it did not exist then
neither the chair would exist. For Plato there must be a pattern which is a
pattern for all that exists and it is this patter that God created:
Is the world created or uncreated?—that is the first
question. Created, I reply, being visible and tangible and having a body, and
therefore sensible; and if sensible, then created; and if created, made by a
cause, and the cause is the ineffable father of all things, who had before him
an eternal archetype. For to imagine that the archetype was created would be
blasphemy, seeing that the world is the noblest of creations, and God is the
best of causes. And the world being thus created according to the eternal
pattern is the copy of something; and we may assume that words are akin to the
matter of which they speak. (Timæus, book 1; italics mine).
Plato held to a belief in polytheistic emanations
that have close resemblance in the theology of the Mormons:
They were to be sown in the planets, and out of them was
to come forth the most religious of animals, which would hereafter be called
man. The souls were to be implanted in bodies, which were in a perpetual flux,
whence, he said, would arise, first, sensation; secondly, love, which is a
mixture of pleasure and pain; thirdly, fear and anger, and the opposite
affections: and if they conquered these, they would live righteously, but if
they were conquered by them, unrighteously. He who lived well would return to
his native star, and would there have a blessed existence; but, if he lived
ill, he would pass into the nature of a woman, and if he did not then alter his
evil ways, into the likeness of some animal, until the reason which was in him
reasserted her sway over the elements of fire, air, earth, water, which had
engrossed her, and he regained his first and better nature. Having given this
law to his creatures, that he might be guiltless of their future evil, he sowed
them, some in the earth, some in the moon, and some in the other planets; and
he ordered the younger gods to frame human bodies for them and to make the
necessary additions to them, and to avert from them all but self-inflicted
evil. (Timæus, book 1; italics mine).
Is this true? From their Doctrines and
Covenants they shall speak:
20Then
shall they be gods, because they have no end; therefore shall they be from aeverlasting
to everlasting, because they continue; then shall they be above all, because
all things are subject unto them. Then shall they be bgods, because
they have call power,
and the angels are subject unto them.(Doctrines And Covenants 132, §20; italics
mine).
The question is: Have the Mormons
accepted either tacitly or by deliberate action accept this dualism; that there
is a God, a pattern, that is a pattern for all that exists, and that there are
gods, gods who have association with planets, before the existence of material
things, and were then implanted, they being a soul, into a physical body? Plato
wrote in the 5th and 4th century B.C. and still has
influence among those who like him are seeking answers and have come to
conclusions that are not revealed to us in God’s word. As Plato theorizes and philosophized that
souls live in an eternity, so do the Mormons:
Spiritual Existence
Before we can understand life, death, and
eternity, we must first understand our life through its various estates in
eternity. We were first all begotten as
spirits. Our individual identity is our
spirit; and we are eternal. “5 Before I
formed thee in the belly I knew thee; and before thou camest forth out of the
womb I sanctified thee, and I ordained thee a prophet unto the nations.” (Jer.
1) “13 And no man hath ascended up to
heaven, but he that came down from heaven, even the Son of man which is in
heaven.” (John 3)(Retrieved from: http://www.mormonbeliefs.com/life_after_death.htm;
December 2, 2012).
As to Plato’s form theory, and his
dualistic philosophy that what is seen has an unseen as a pattern in the
heavens is also taught within the Mormon Religion:
Most Mormon theologians agree that
all life forms on earth are represented in spirit form in the spirit world. We
believe that spirit viruses do not exist in heaven. However, spirit one-celled
organisms are possible in the spirit world. They occupy spirit environmental
niches, and form much of the bottom of the food chain, like here on earth. Most
foods, except coffee, and alcohol, of course, are served in heaven. Sweets are
especially prized by the saints and by the angels.
(Retrieved from: http://nowscape.com/mormon/mormons4.htm;
December 2, 2012).
As Plato teaches, there is a hierarchy of gods; so do
Mormons:
For Mormons, Father, Son, and Holy Ghost are: The Heavenly Father,
Jehovah-Jesus, and Holy Ghost. Mormons also have minor deities whom they
revere. We believe that angels visit the earth from KOLOB, the Planet Of Origin
(POO) -- of angels and spirits and gods. Sacred (not secret)
Mormon documents locked away in Temple vaults in the Mountains near Salt Lake
City Utah contain documents and photographs of a 1954 visit of the Angel
Gabriel.
(Retrieved from: http://nowscape.com/mormon/mormons4.htm;
December 2, 2012).
Some
will object effusively that I am picking on a religion that has many followers,
does good things, and believes in Jesus Christ as their name states; Latter
Day Saints of Jesus Christ. No, this is not just an affront to a religion,
it is an examination as to whether or not the philosophies of those ancient
philosophers have found an entrance into this previous age. There is an old
saying: “If the shoe fits….” We are seeking the truth and evidence that this
world has been influenced by paganism, and whether or not we have been
personally influenced and are following the wrong religion. If so, then we have
the responsibility to do something about it, we are to change from the inside
out. It is Authentic Biblical Faith we desire. I will examining other
mainstream so–called “Christian” religions as well, and also those
philosophers, i.e., Immanuel Kant and others and see how they have accepted
that ancient philosophies and how what they theorized as truth, or possible
truth, have affected how we think, especially how we think in regards to God.
Stayed tuned! We have much to discuss and I welcome any comments, this is an
open forum. Thank You!
In Him you also trusted, after you
Heard
the word of truth,
The gospel of your salvation;
In
whom also, having
Believed, you wee sealed with
The
Holy Spirit of promise.
Ephesians 1: 13
You have been raised with Jesus:
Live for Him
Richard L. Crumb
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