Why I Am Not a Mormon

  In my   (almost) twenty years of ministry, I have dealt with my fair share of eager, zealous and unfailingly polite  young Mormon missionaries.  I have also dealt with a handful of older, more seasoned representatives of the LDS organization.  I have listened to the President address the General convention more than once. I have read some, but not all of the Book of Mormon. I have read part, but not all of Doctrines and Covenants. I have spent some time  on the official LDS website as well as reading the personal writings of many current and former LDS adherents. Though not an expert I have , in my opinion  had a more than  adequate exposure to LDS  theology and practices to understand what it is and what it is not.   I will now lay out the 4 basic reasons why I am not a Mormon.
1. I do not believe the Book of Mormon to be inspired.    Anyone can  write a book that sort of sounds like the Bible.  What  no one other than God can do is to  write a book that  tells the future before it happens.  This was given as the  ultimate test as to  the inspiration of the Bible, and how  you would determine if what you had was the word of God or the word of Joseph.  God openly challenges the  spiritual forgeries of this world in Isaiah 41:23 when he says "Shew the things that are to come hereafter, that we may know that ye are gods: yea, do good , or do evil , that we may be dismayed , and behold it together. " The Bible says "the spirit of Jesus Christ is the spirit of prophecy." and for all it's 'thees and thous', the book of Mormon  fails this very simple test. There is not a single bit of independently  fulfilled prophecy contained therein.
2. I do not believe Joseph Smith  was  a prophet. The Bible says "When a prophet speaketh in the name of the LORD, if the thing follow not, nor come to pass , that is the thing which the LORD hath not spoken , but the prophet hath spoken it presumptuously: thou shalt not be afraid of him."(Deut 18:22) When it comes to predicting the future, Joseph Smith couldn't find  his way out of a wet paper bag. In fact, for a guy that happily took the title of Prophet,  he has  lots and lots and lots of ramblings to the contrary.
3. I  believe LDS  doctrine to be damnable heresy There are scores of examples, but I'll show a  basic one.  According to the rapidly  changing LDS website , everybody gets some form of eternal life. In another place they say "Those who choose not to follow our Heavenly Father and Jesus Christ will receive a reward according to what they have done in this life, but they will not enjoy the glory of living in the presence of God."
  The Bible takes a very contrary position however, saying that  "He that hath the Son hath life; and he that hath not the Son of God hath not life" (1 John 5:12) John 5:24 says "Verily, verily, I say unto you , He that heareth my word, and believeth on him that sent me, hath everlasting life, and shall not come into condemnation; but is passed from death unto life"Jesus said in Matt 25:41"Then shall he say also unto them on the left hand, Depart from me, ye cursed , into everlasting fire, prepared for the devil and his angels:"  The idea that "everybody goes to heaven" or even the watered-down LDS  idea of hell is  unscriptural.
  We could go on and on, but LDS  alters their doctrine  ( and updates their website) just often enough that it's sometimes hard to nail down exactly what the LDS position is. 
4. I believe LDS teaches a  false gospel.  One afternoon I was  approached by two  Mormon representatives at a gas station.  They told me they were  out 'spreading the gospel'. I asked them what the gospel was. The young man  gave me a long list of things that included repentance, and baptism and obedience to God's commandments. I repeated the list back to him and then asked him if that was all.  He added another two or three things to the list like church membership and enduring until the end. By the time he was done there was a list of roughly 10 or so things that, when presented  in entirety was 'the recovered gospel'. What his entire  list had in common was that is was all works.  I took this young man to 1 Cor 15 where the gospel is defined as the death burial and resurrection of Jesus Christ.I showed him Ephesians 2 where it says that salvation is the free gift of God, "not of works lest any man should boast". LDS teaches a works-based salvation. A 'works' salvation is  an accursed gospel according to Galatians 1.

  At the end of the day it doesn't matter how polite they are, or how sincere they are. The LDS organization is a dangerous cult that  teaches damnable heresy, and should be treated as such.   whenever I deal with Mormons I  try to be polite because for the most part, they don't  really know what  their church teaches, and they  certainly don't know the history of their church.   Most of them are very young men who have been raised in this  doctrine so I don't blame them, but I am  duty-bound  to inform them, as much as I am anybody else, the way of true salvation; which the Bible defines as "repentance towards God, and faith in the Lord Jesus Christ"