I read your article about the LDS Church and I found it very interesting. I myself am a Latter-day Saint and I believe strongly in my church, but there was no real harm in your article. I just wanted to point out a small error you made.

You quoted 2nd Nephi 25:23 as proof that our doctrine did indeed say that it was by grace we are saved. In order to prevent any misunderstanding about the doctrine of the LDS church I thought I could be helpful in pointing out the very last line in that same verse. "For we know it is by grace that we are saved, after all we can do."

I have found this scripture to say that after we have done all we can to work towards our salvation, Christ does the rest. We cannot be saved by our own work, but after a diligent effort on our part, Christ brings us the rest of the way.

I hope I have cleared up any misconceptions you have towards our church. You have some very gifted writers and you make for interesting reading. Feel free to e-mail me back. Thank you for your time, and Merry Christmas.
-Byron Heath

P.S. Here are a few more scriptures on salvation from the Book of Mormon. They tell us how faith, obedience, repentance, and enduring to the end are all a part of repentance. I hope they are helpful to you. If you would like any more information regarding our doctrine don't hesitate to e-mail. Thanks!

2nd Nephi 9:44, Mosiah 3:12

"O, my beloved brethren, remember my words. Behold, I take off my garments, and I shake them before you; I pray the God of my salvation that he view me with his all-searching eye; wherefore, ye shall know at the last day, when all men shall be judged of their works, the God of Israel did witness that I shook your iniquities from my soul, and that I stand with brightness before him, and am rid of your blood. 2nd Nephi 9:44,

Nephi addresses Israel teaches the he cleans his garments himself by shaking the sinfulness out of it and shows his nude body to God. The Bible states that we will receive our white garment of righteousness from Jesus Christ. We need His righteousness. Our own righteousness is insufficient. God only recognizes His Son's righteousness.

The Great White Throne Judgement is only for people who have not accepted the gift of salvation from Jesus Christ. Jesus purchased us with His blood. He was blameless and 33 years old. He was God in human form and the only one who could have been sufficient to lay His life down for all the sin in the world. It is an insult not to accept that offering. That is what the judgement is about. Believers are judged at another event to receive rewards. God will test their works after they were born again, Whatever was not of God will be burned up. Whatever stands the test will be rewarded.

In Mosiah 3:12 comes the contradiction of Mormonism. Mormons believe that they are saved after all they can do as the Mormon indicated above. Here is what Mosiah 3:12 states: "But wo, wo unto him who knoweth that he rebelleth against God! For salvation cometh to none such except it be through repentence and faith on the Lord Jesus Christ." This verse contradicts what Mormons believe and that is the general condition of their writings. That is why they are so effective in convincing people of other beliefs. They can communicate on their level without lying because they have a Scripture to back it up. For Mormons themselves it is fatal because they have to believe two concepts that do not agree simultaneously.

The Book of Mormon describes the trinity, God the Father, God the Son and God the Holy Spirit and a Christian thinks they believe the same thing as Christians do. What they don't realize is that the Mormon God had to have had a body first because that is the reason every person is born into this life according to Mormonism. You even get to choose your parents from the spirit world. A Mormon bishop's wife had ten children and when asked why so many she answered that she knew her children in the spirit world prior to their birth and that she had made a deal with them to give them a body. She wanted to make sure that she would not forget a spirit that she had promised a body. The memory of the spirit world is removed when a person comes into this world.

They have to have a body first to become a god. Don't ask a Mormon which came first the egg or the chicken. They don't know how the first God got a body without a woman. Mormons also believe that there is a Mother God. God had physical intercourse with Mary to create Jesus. The Mormon Jesus is a created spirit just like we were created spirits who lived before we got to earth and just like Satan who has not received his body and never will. He is a spirit.

According to Mormonism we are all spirit brothers and sisters which includes Jesus and Satan. The Holy Spirit is also different in Mormonism even though he seems to be part of the trinity. He is not considered to be a person. He did not write the Mormon standard works. They believe that the Bible is full of errors. Their prophet Joseph Smith rewrote the Bible. They call the Book of Mormon the greatest book ever written when 3912 errors were found in it. The Bible is flawless and highly esteemed in intellectual circles as a literary work of excellence. In Mormonism the Holy Spirit is not considered to be their teacher even though the Bible demands it.

In Mormonism man pre - existed which is unbiblical. This concept comes out gnosticism developed by Greek philosophers. They believe man existed first as an intelligence. Joseph Smith stated that the mind of man is as immortal as God himself. Their spirits existed co-equal with God... God never did have power to create the spirit of man at all. God himself could not create himself: intelligence exists upon a self existent principle, it is a spirit from age to age, and there is no creation about it... The first principles of man are self existent with God.." (Times and Seasons, Vol.5, pp. 615)

Bruce R. McConkie who wrote the Mormon Doctrine stated about Spirit Children the following: Alll men were literally born as spirit children of God and his wife (who once lived on another earth and are resurrected beings).

The First Presidency of the Church stated that "All men and women are in the similitude of the universal Father and Mother, and are literally the sons and daughters of Deity; as spirits they were the 'offspring of celestial parentage.' (Man: His Origin and Destiny, pp. 351,355.) These spirit beings, the offspring of exalted parents, were men and women, appearing in all respects as mortal persons do, excepting only that their spirit bodies were made of a more pure and refined substance than the elements from which mortal bodies are made. (Ether 3:16; D. & C. 131:7-8)

"To understand the doctrine of pre-existence two great truths must be accepted: 1. That God is a personal Being in whose image man is created, an exalted, perfected, and glorified Man of Holiness (Moses 6:57), and not a spirit essence that fills the immensity of space; and 2. That matter or element is self-existent and eternal in nature, creation being merely the organization and reorganization of that substance which 'was not created or made, neither indeed can be. (D.&C. 93:29.) .. if there had been no self-existent spirit element, there would have been no substance from which those spirit bodies could have been organized." (Mormon Doctrine, by Bruce McConkie, pp.589-590)

The Mormon Apostle Orson Pratt explained why Mormons don't pray to their Heavenly Mother: "But if we have a heavenly Mother as well as a heavenly Father, is it not right that we should worship the Mother of our spirits as well as the Father? No: for the Father of our spirits is at the head of His household, and His wives and children are required to yield the most perfect obedience to their great Head. It is lawful for the children to worship the King of Heaven, but not the Queen of heaven.. Jesus prayed to His Father, and taught His disciples to do likewise; but we are nowhere taught that Jesus prayed to His heavenly Mother:.. (The Seer, p. 15:7)