By Jill Martin Rische
Reblogged from www.olivetreeviews.org
May 14, 2013
God
is moving in the hearts of the Mormon people, calling them to Him. It's
coming -- the decline and fall of the vast Latter Day Saint Empire, and
it is crumbling from within.
When
the Internet first arrived, many feared it would extend the reach of
the Mormon Church, but though their voice is heard, what sounds even
louder and longer is the voice of dissent. God is using the Internet to
shine an intense light into the dark corners of Mormonism. Search
engines like Google are now the nemesis of the Mormon leadership, often
leading young people to ask embarrassing questions like, "Why didn't you
tell me Joseph Smith was a polygamist?" Mormons of all ages are
leaving, even at the risk of losing their children and grandchildren to
the cruel Mormon practice of "shunning" because, unlike their leaders,
they cannot live a lie.
The
squeaky clean Mormon faces in all those "I am a Mormon" commercials
portray a growing church with a diverse and happy membership, but it is a
diversity only recently embraced in 1978, when the Mormon heavenly
father changed his mind and found men with dark skin worthy of the
priesthood. That option is still not available to women. Since then,
many Mormons have discovered even more troubling facts and left the
church, while a majority of those who remain on Mormon rolls are now
"inactive."
ABC 4 News,
Salt Lake City, confirms that record numbers are leaving the church,
with sociologists placing active membership at the 5 million mark -- a
record loss of almost 70% of the membership of the Mormon Church. This
substantiates the downward trend that apologist Kurt Van Gorden and I
noted in The Kingdom of the Cults (2008). Statistics from the site whymormonsleave.com pinpoint the top reasons Mormons lose their testimony as I ceased to believe in the church's doctrine/theology, followed closely by I studied church history and lost my belief, and I lost faith in Joseph Smith.
One
anecdotal source posting on YouTube as Gidget Lawrence sums up what
countless online Mormon-focused discussion boards are saying, "The LDS
Church is definitely losing members in large numbers in Utah. Much of
this is due to an influx of evangelical Christians from other states.
Mormonism
in Utah stood pretty much uncontested until the '90s. Now, there are
many voices exposing the truth about Mormon history and the heretical
teaching of Joseph Smith. People such as the late Walter Martin, Sandra
Tanner, Doris Hanson, Bill McKeever, and Shawn McCraney have made a
significant impact in the state over the last 20 years."
This
is the fruit God continues to give to those who love the Mormon people
and work tirelessly to make sure they have access to all of the facts.
The
truth surfaced slowly but surely over the years, confirmed more
recently by the lack of any DNA evidence linking Native Americans to the
Book of Mormon, the missing archaeological proof, the Book of Abraham
fraud, and the recent work of renowned LDS Historian Grant Palmer in his
book, An Insider's View of Mormon Origins.
And
finally, there are the unguarded statements that mushroom into
bombshell stories, like those made by General Authority Elder Marlin
Jensen, the official historian of the Mormon Church. When asked last
year if LDS Leaders knew members were "leaving in droves," Elder Jensen
replied, "We are aware...and I'm speaking of the 15 men that are above
me in the hierarchy of the church."
Jensen
argued that the loss in membership was not "apocalyptic" but that
"maybe since Kirtland (1837), we've never had a period of -- I'll call
it apostasy, like we're having now." That's 176 years of Mormon history
and not a single period during all that time compares with the apostasy
happening today? Apocalyptic does indeed seem to fit, and Elder Jensen has since been "released" from his position in the church.
There
are cracks in the glistening white dam of Mormonism. Tiny, fragmented,
and growing rapidly, they now spread from home to home and ward to ward,
all the way up to the Twelve Apostles of the Mormon Church -- apostles
who, according to a highly placed source, no longer believe in the
Joseph Smith story but will never speak the words for fear they will
lose substantial financial benefits given to them when they became
Apostles.
Another
member of the First Quorum of the Seventies, second only to the Twelve
Mormon Apostles, has recently admitted the truth of a Mormon leadership
in apostasy. "It takes about two to three years before the new
apostle discovers that the church is not true. He said it took Dieter F.
Uchtdorf a little longer because he was an outsider. He said they
privately talk among themselves and know the foundational claims of the
restoration are not true...."
These
men keep up the pretense of belief because "the people need it," even
though the people will go to hell because of it. They call fellow
Mormons on the carpet at disciplinary hearings for daring to challenge
the truth of Mormonism, when multiple sources suggest they don't believe
a word of it themselves. Corrupt? Evil? The
opinion of many who have left the church is that they are all this and
more -- hardcore businessmen ruling a Mormon empire worth billions, who
are not about to throw away a lucrative source of income.
Years
ago, Walter Martin predicted the fall of the Mormon Church would begin
from within, saying that "When God destroyed Goliath of Gath, he didn't
do it with the stones. He cut off his head with his own sword. The
twitching corpse of Mormon theology will lie there one day because its
head was cut off by its own archives." There is now a daily current of
credible information available online to anyone with a question about
the truth of Mormonism; secrets once hidden in Mormon archives are
finding their way out.
God
is using biblical truth, history, and technology to touch the hearts of
people. He is using the Sword of the Spirit inside the Mormon Church,
and the head of Goliath is within reach.
For a list of sources and further information, please visit
