What is an harlot?1 What false form do they sell?2 What kind of union is had with an harlot? Does it have any lasting value or commitment? Does it bear any fruit? What does the harlot value and get in return for the false union?3

What is the true union? What does it represent? What of lasting value is obtained from this union, and what fruit does it bear?4 What plain and precious truths about this union have been lost, hidden, tucked away, rejected?5 What is the fulness of the Gospel?6 What is it about the fulness that has been taken away that causes an exceeding many to stumble and grope about in the dark?

If a religion has only a false form and cannot offer marriage7, yet claims they can save you through their priesthood and keys, what does that make them, but a servant of the mother of harlots, the mother of pretenders, the mother of false signs, the father of lies who "sits in the temple showing that he is God"?8

If there are two churches only, and one of them withholds plain and precious truths and instead substitutes the commandments of men, where can the church9 be found that preserves these things?

The devil has no desire to overthrow outright that which is good. He is the father of lies. Is it a good lie, if it is outrageous? Of course not, it has to be believable. He only desires to pervert the good such that it has lost enough power to cease to be good, or in other words lost the ability to save. He wants all the appearances and trappings of godliness, just not the power. He wants to keep temples, just so long as he is the one who sits in the temple, showing himself that he is God.10

 

Notes:

1. See 1 Nephi chapters 13-14.

2. Form without power.

"...they draw near to me with their lips, but their hearts are far from me, they teach for doctrines the commandments of men, having a form of godliness, but they deny the power thereof." (JSH 1:19)

"Joseph, at this time, rebuked the Elders for administering the form without the power. Said he, 'Let the Elders either obtain the power of God to heal the sick, or let them cease to administer the form without the power.'" (Autobiography of Joseph Bates Noble)

"Yea, it shall come in a day when there shall be churches built up that shall say: Come unto me, and for your money you shall be forgiven of your sins [and sealed up to eternal life]." (Mormon 8:32)

"And they deny the power of God, the Holy One of Israel; and they say unto the people: Hearken unto us, and hear ye our precept; for behold there is no God today, for the Lord and the Redeemer hath done his work, and he hath given his power unto men; (2 Nephi 28:5)

3. Ezekiel 34. The Lord is against the shepherds of Israel because they feed on the sheep and "because there is no shepherd: and they became meat to all the beasts of the field, when they were scattered."  What can be fed on? Money, substance?  The lust for power and authority?  A desire to dominate and bring into submission? How and for what purpose are the sheep being fed upon and drained.

4. Other's blessings are not our blessings. Other's revelations and covenants are not our covenants.

5. In 1920, the First Presidency created a committee which would eventually remove the Lectures on Faith from the Doctrine and Covenants on the basis that "Certain lessons entitled The Lectures on Faith which were bound with Doctrine and Covenants in some of its former issues, are not included in this edition. Those lessons were prepared for use in the School of Elders. But they were never presented or accepted by the Church as other than theological lessons or lectures."  The committee included Elder George F. Richards, Anthony W. Ivins, Melvin J. Ballard, James E. Talmage, John A. Widtsoe and Joseph Fielding Smith. (see The 'Lectures on Faith': A Case Study in Decanonization, Richard S. Van Wagoner, Steven C. Walker, and Allen D. Roberts)

See this, for testimonites that the above statement has no basis in truth.

"I have never prayed to see the Savior. I know of men – Apostles – who have seen the Savior more than once. I have prayed to the Lord for the inspiration of His Spirit to guide me, and I have told Him that I have seen so many men fall because of some great manifestation to them, they felt their importance, their greatness." (Heber J. Grant, The Diaries of Heber J. Grant, p. 468)  Consider what Heber Grant is saying what these men fell from.  What was his standard of righteousness?

6. "Behold, this is the doctrine of Christ, and there will be no more doctrine given until after he shall manifest himself unto you in the flesh. And when he shall manifest himself unto you in the flesh, the things which he shall say unto you shall ye observe to do." (2 Nephi 32:6)

7. The saints were offered a fulness of the priesthood which had been taken away.  The offer was made upon conditions of the completion of the temple and obedience to the Lord. (D&C 124:28-32, 44-48)

8. "Let no man deceive you by any means: for that day shall not come, except there come a falling away first, and that man of sin be revealed, the son of perdition; Who opposeth and exalteth himself above all that is called God, or that is worshipped; so that he as God sitteth in the temple of God, shewing himself that he is God." (2 Thessalonians 2:1-3)

"Know ye not that ye are the temple of God, and that the Spirit of God dwelleth in you? If any man defile the temple of God, him shall God destroy; for the temple of God is holy, which temple ye are." (1 Corinthians 3:16-17)

9. "Behold, this is my doctrine—whosoever repenteth and cometh unto me, the same is my church. Whosoever declareth more or less than this, the same is not of me, but is against me; therefore he is not of my church. And now, behold, whosoever is of my church, and endureth of my church to the end, him will I establish upon my rock, and the gates of hell shall not prevail against them." (D&C 10:67-69)

"The man that tells you words of life is the man who can save you." (Joseph Smith, King Follet Discourse, Thomas Bullock Report, The Words of Joseph Smith)

10. "Let no man deceive you by any means: for that day shall not come, except there come a falling away first, and that man of sin be revealed, the son of perdition; Who opposeth and exalteth himself above all that is called God, or that is worshipped; so that he as God sitteth in the temple of God, shewing himself that he is God." (2 Thessalonians 2:4)