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• Joseph Smith said that a person “would get nearer to God by abiding by [the Book of Mormon‘s] precepts than by any other book” (Teachings of the Prophet Joseph Smith, p. 194). Just what are those “precepts” from the Book of Mormon that God wants you to follow that cannot be found in other books like the Bible?
• Alma 11:37 says that “no unclean thing can inherit the kingdom of heaven”? Are you clean? How did you get that way? And how long does this cleansing last?
• Alma 11:37 also says that a person “cannot be saved in your sins.” D&C 1:31 adds that God cannot “look upon sin with the least degree of allowance.” Do you struggle with sin? If so, can it be assumed according to your understanding of Alma 11:37 that you are not saved?
• As a Latter-day Saint I am sure you take repentance very seriously. However, on page 67 of the LDS Church manual Gospel Fundamentals it states, “Our Father in heaven does not sin, and He does not allow people who sin to live with Him. To live with Him we must repent of our sins. To repent means to feel sorry for our sins and stop doing them.” Have you stopped sinning? If not, how can you be sure you will live eternally with Heavenly Father? If the above statement is true, doesn’t the fact you continually repent, prove you are not truly repentant; after all, people who stop sinning have no need to repent.
• D&C 25:15 says that unless a person keeps the commandments “continually,” he cannot go where God is. Do you keep the commandments continually? If not, where do Latter-day Saints like you go when they die?
• If you cannot say that you do keep the commandments “continually,” then how do you explain 1 Nephi 3:7 where it says, “For I know that the Lord giveth no commandments unto the children of men, save he shall prepare a way for them that they may accomplish the thing which he commandeth them”?
• Isaiah 44:6,8 says that there is no God beside the God of the Bible and that this God does not know of any other gods. If this is Jesus (Jehovah) speaking—as attested to by such LDS leaders as Apostle Bruce McConkie (The Promised Messiah, p.312)—does that mean Jesus does not know His own Father? If you were to actually become a god, would God know you?
• In Alma 11:26-29 Amulek tells Zeezrom that there is only one “true and living God.” If that is true, which of the three Gods in the LDS understanding of the godhead is not true and/or living? God the Father? Jesus? Or the Holy Ghost?
• If we are to believe that the Nephites were supposed to believe and practice their faith like modern-day Latter-day Saints, where in the Book of Mormon does it say they held the Melchizedek priesthood? Where does it say they practiced baptism for the dead? Or believe that men can become Gods? How about God having a body of flesh and bones? What about the existence of a “heavenly mother”? Where does it say that all humans existed prior to this earthly existence? Or how Jesus and Lucifer are brothers?
• D&C 88:22 says that only those who abide a celestial law can hope to achieve the celestial kingdom. Are you keeping celestial law?
• If the “decrees of God are unalterable” (Alma 41:8), why has your church made so many corrections over the years (i.e. Declarations 1 and 2, changes in the temple endowment ceremony, changes in the birth control doctrine, etc.)?
• Your leaders have taught that salvation comes by faith and works. This being the case, why did Joseph Smith insert the word “alone” into Romans 3:28 of his Inspired Version (a.k.a. the Joseph Smith Translation) of the Bible? (It reads, “Therefore we conclude that a man is justified by faith alone without the deeds of the law.”)
• Joseph Smith inserted the word “not” in Romans 4:5 of the Inspired Version so that it reads, “…who justifieth not the ungodly…” Are you “godly”? If so, how did you get that way? If not, doesn’t that mean you are not justified before God? Why would God need to justify a godly person anyway?
• President Brigham Young concluded his 1852 Adam-God sermon (which was a conference message) with these words: “Now, let all who may hear these doctrines, pause before they make light of them, or treat them with indifference, for they will prove their salvation or damnation” (Journal of Discourses 1:51). Do you believe Adam is God? If not, aren’t you treating these “doctrines” lightly or with indifference”? Wasn’t Spencer Kimball treating Young’s teaching with indifference when he called it a “false doctrine” (Church News 10/9/76)? If Young was correct, will Kimball be damned? If Kimball was correct, doesn’t this prove LDS prophets can teach false doctrine?
• Alma 10:3 states that Lehi “was a descendant of Manasseh.” If modern native Americans are really descendants of Lehi and his son Laman, why does DNA deny any link between American Indians and Lehi’s Jewish heritage?
• Joseph Smith said, “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” (Teachings of the Prophet Joseph Smith, p. 345). But the Book of Mormon says in Moroni 8:18, “For I know that God is not a partial God, neither a changeable being; but he is unchangeable from all eternity to all eternity.” Did God change? Or was He always God?
• President Brigham Young and other LDS leaders taught that those who were not valiant in the preexistence were marked in mortality with a “flat nose and black skin.” (See Journal of Discourses 7:290, The Way to Perfection, p.101, Answers to Gospel Questions 2:175, Mormon Doctrine, p.527.) Since it was this mark that would help distinguish who was not eligible to receive the priesthood, why do some people still bear the mark even though the priesthood ban was lifted in 1978?
• Presidents Brigham Young and Wilford Woodruff both taught that God is progressing in knowledge (Journal of Discourses 11:286, The Discourses of Wilford Woodruff, p.3). Yet President Joseph Fielding Smith said that “this kind of doctrine is very dangerous” (Doctrines of Salvation 1:8). Which prophet was telling the truth?
• When asked in a Time magazine interview if God the Father was once a man, President Gordon Hinckley said, “I don’t know that we teach it. I don’t know that we emphasize it…” (8/4/97, p. 56). Was he telling the truth?
• Are you “sufficiently humble” and “stripped of pride”? If not, Alma 5:27,28 says you are not prepared to die. If you think you are, doesn’t this prove you’re not?
• Apostle Bruce R. McConkie said “a man may be damned for a single sin” (Doctrinal New Testament Commentary 3:257). Can you account for every single sin you have ever committed? Are you certain that all of your sins are forgiven?
• President Spencer Kimball said that only those who are “living all the commandments” are guaranteed “total forgiveness of sins” and assured of “exaltation” (The Miracle of Forgiveness, p.208). Are you living all of the commandments? If not, how can you be sure you are forgiven?
• Spencer Kimball also taught that “each command we obey sends us another rung up the ladder to perfected manhood and toward godhood; and every law disobeyed is a sliding toward the bottom where man merges into the brute world” (Teachings of Spencer W. Kimball, p.153). How tall is this proverbial ladder? And what rung are you on?
• Sixth President Joseph F. Smith said, “…it is absolutely necessary for every man and woman in the Church of Christ to work righteousness, to observe the laws of God, and keep the commandments that He has given, in order that they may avail themselves of the power of God unto salvation in this life” (Conference Reports, October 1907, p.3) Yet Titus 3:5 states clearly that salvation is not gained by “works of righteousness which we have done, but according to His mercy.” How can salvation be wrought by God’s mercy if you earned it through good works?
• In Ephesians 2:8,9 the Apostle Paul states, “For by grace are ye saved through faith; and that not of yourselves: it is the gift of God: Not of works, lest any man should boast.” When Paul uses the word “saved,” is he making a reference to a general resurrection or exaltation?
• The Apostle John stated, “These things have I written unto you that believe on the name of the Son of God; that ye may know that ye have eternal life, and that ye may believe on the name of the Son of God” (1 John 5:13). If you were to die right now, do you know for certain if you will have eternal life? If not, when will you finally know? Wouldn’t you like to have this issue settled before you die? Do you think you ever will if you remain in The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints?
• Do you believe God is honored when a person believes something that is not true? How would you recognize something that is not true?
• If there was the slightest possibility that you could be wrong, would you want to know? If so, what would you do if you discovered that what you believed was not true?