Bible Study for Mormons
1. Were sin and death part of God's plan from the beginning?
Was our world created so that pre-existing spirits could
experience sin and death as part of their progression to a
happier state of existence?
Genesis 1:31
Answer:
"And God saw every thing that He had made, and, behold, it
was _________ ____________. And the evening and the morning were
the sixth day." Genesis 1:31
That was God's estimate of everything that He had made! It was very good! Usually when a teacher sends back a corrected paper to you and has it marked very good! She means that it must be just that! Not a red mark on it! When God makes something very good, He means what He says, not a flaw in it at all! Sin did not exist on the earth, and it was not part of His plan for us to sin in order for us to experience happiness. Sin came about because of man's free will, not because we had to sin in order to experience true happiness. Sin brought with it disaster, death, degradation and imperfections to God's perfect world. Now God's plan is to restore us back to Eden which was lost through sin!
Quoting from Elder Leon Cornforth, in Meeting the Mormon Challenge With Love, p. 132, he states, "If the Mormon teaching is correct that sin and death are a part of God's plan, it turns the whole story of Adam and Eve's sin on its head. If Mormons are right, we must understand the account in Genesis of Satan tempting Adam and Eve to be only play-acting. If Mormons are right, we must understand that God didn't really mean it when He told Adam and Eve not to eat the fruit of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. We must understand that Adam and Eve weren't really disobeying God when they ate the forbidden fruit; they were only pretending to disobey; they knew that it was really God's plan all along that they eat it. We must understand Satan to be either God's accomplice or His unwitting tool when He tempted Eve to disobey God. Clearly, the entire story in Genesis makes no sense if we understand it in this way."
2. What does the Bible say sin is?
1 John 3:4
Answer:
"Whosoever committeth sin transgresseth also the law: for
sin is the _____________________ of the __________." 1 John
3:4
If I get in my car, drive down the two-way street on the left side of the road instead of the right side of the road, and crash into a car, was it the will of the State which I reside in that I do that? For one thing, I find out that I broke the Law of the land that says for safety reasons, "Thou shalt drive on the right hand of the street on a two way road." God's Law is the expression of His will and is meant to keep us from harm; sin is going against that will. Thus it is impossible that sin should be God's purpose and will. Sin is always opposed to God and His will. Do you see the point? It was not God's will that Adam and Eve should sin against Him! That was not His purpose for them! God's purpose was that they should love and obey Him! Because human beings have a free will, sometimes they must learn the really hard way, a way that is totally unnecessary, that all that God requires is loving obedience to His perfect will in the first place!
3. So the Bible has shown us that man did not pre-exist as a
spirit before God gave him a body of flesh and blood. Does Man
have a spirit that cannot die, then, and shall that spirit
progress until it becomes a god?
Genesis 3:1-6
Answer:
"Now the serpent was more subtil than any beast of the field
which the Lord God had made. And he said unto the woman, Yeah,
hath God said, Ye shall not eat of every tree of the garden? And
the woman said unto the serpent, We may eat of the fruit of the
trees of the garden: But of the fruit of the tree which is in the
midst of the garden, God hath said, Ye shall not eat of it,
neither shall ye touch it lest ye die. And the _________________
said unto the woman, Ye shall _______ ____________ die: For God
doth know that in the day ye eat thereof, then your eyes shall be
opened, and ye shall be as __________, knowing good and evil. And
when the woman saw that the tree was good for food, and that it
was pleasant to the eyes, and a tree to be desired to make one
wise, she took of the fruit thereof, and did eat, and gave also
unto her husband with her; and he did eat." Genesis 3:1-6.
Whose theology was it that if Eve disobeyed God and ate of the fruit, that she would not surely die, but become as a god, that only then would she be truly happy? It was not God's word that told her! God never said that, did He? The devil working through the serpent said that. The Bible says she was deceived, or beguiled, in 2 Corinthians 11:3--"But I fear, lest by any means, as the serpent beguiled Eve through his subtilty, so your minds should be corrupted from the simplicity that is in Christ."
Mormon teaching would reiterate Satan's lie! Nowhere does my Bible state that man will become a god, rather it warns us of false gods or becoming a god!
4. How many Gods does the Bible say there are?
Exodus 20:3; Isaiah 44:6, 9; 1 Timothy 2:5
Answer:
a. "Thou shalt have ______ __________________ gods before Me."
Exodus 20:3
b. "Thus saith the Lord the King of Israel, and his redeemer the Lord of hosts; I am the first, and I am the last; and beside me there is _______ God." Isaiah 44:6
c. "They that make a graven image are all of them ____________; and their delectable things shall not profit; and they are their own witnesses; they see not, nor know; that they may be ashamed."Isaiah 44:9
d. "For there is __________ God, and one mediator between God and men, the man Christ Jesus." 1 Timothy 2:5
5. What happened to King Herod who took God's glory to himself,
and became a god to the people?
Acts 12:20-23
Answer:
"....and the people gave a shout, saying, it is the voice of
a __________, and not of a man. And immediately the angel of the
Lord ______________ him, because he gave not God the glory: and
he was _________________ of worms, and gave up the ghost [breath
of life]." Acts 12:20-23
6. Does the Bible teach that the soul or spirit of man is
immortal? If he is immortal, then that means he can be god, right?
1 Timothy 6:15, 16; Ecclesiastes 9:5, 6; Psalm 146:1-4; Psalm 115:17;
Psalm 6:5; Ecclesiastes 9:10
Answer:
a. "Which in His times He shall shew, who is the blessed and
only Potentate, the King of kings, and Lord of lords; Who
____________ hath immortality, dwelling in the light which no man
can approach unto; whom no man hath seen, nor can see: to whom be
honour and power everlasting. Amen." 1 Timothy 6:15, 16.
b. "For the living know that they shall die: but the dead know not _________ ________________, neither have they any more a reward; for the memory of them is forgotten. Also their love, and their hatred, and their envy, is now ________________; neither have they any more a portion for ever in any thing that is done under the sun." Ecclesiastes 9:5, 6
c. "Praise ye the Lord, Praise the Lord, O my soul. While I ___________ will I praise the Lord: I will sing praises unto my God while I have any _____________. Put not your trust in princes, nor in the son of man, in whom there is no help. His breath goeth forth, he returneth to his earth; in that very day his thoughts _______________." Psalm 146:1-4
d. "The dead praise __________ the Lord, neither any that go down into silence." Psalm 115:17
e. "Whatsoever they hand findeth to do, do it with thy might; for there is no work, nor device, nor knowledge, nor wisdom, in the __________________, whither thou goest." Ecclesiastes 9:10
7. What does the Bible compare death to?
Job 14:10-12; Psalm 13:3; John 11:11-14; 1 Corinthians 15:20
Answer:
a. "But man dieth, and wasteth away; yea, man giveth up the
ghost [breath of life], and where is he? As the waters fall from
the sea, and flood decayeth and drieth up: so man lieth down, and
riseth not: till the heavens be no more, they shall not awake,
nor be raised out of their __________________." Job 14:10-12
b. "Consider and hear me, O Lord my God: lighten mine eyes, lest I _____________ the _____________ of death." Psalm 13:3
c. "These things said he: and after that He saith unto them, Our friend Lazarus _____________; but I go, that I may awake him out of sleep. Then said His disciples, Lord, if he sleep, he shall do well. Howbeit, Jesus spake of his death: but they thought that He had spoken of taking of rest in sleep. The said Jesus unto them plainly, Lazarus is _____________." John 11:11-14
d. "But now is Christ risen from the ____________, and become the firstfruits of them that __________________." 1 Corinthians 15:20.
8. Will the wicked live forever as well as the righteous?
Romans 6:23; John 3:16; Malachi 4:1-3; Revelation 20:7-9, 14
Answer:
a. "For the wages of sin is _________________; but the gift
of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord."
Romans 6:23
Everyone dies the first death, so that cannot be the reward of the wicked that is mentioned here. There will be a second death described in Revelation 20 (below), which is the final death for all the wicked from which there will be no resurrection.
b. "For God so loved the world, that He gave His only begotten Son, that ___________________ ____________________ in Him should not perish, but have everlasting life." John 3:16
c. "For, behold, the day cometh, that shall burn as an oven; and all the proud, yea, and all that do wickedly, shall be stubble: and the day that cometh ___________ ______________ _______________ _________, saith the Lord of hosts, that is shall leave them neither root nor branch." Malachi 4:1-3
d. "And when the thousand years are expired, Satan shall be loosed out of his prison, And shall go out to deceive the nations which are in the four quarters of the earth, Gog and Magog, to gather them together to battle: the number of whom is as the sand of the sea. And they went up on the breadth of the earth, and compassed the camp of the saints about, and the beloved city: and fire came down from God out of heaven, and ________________ them." "And death and hell were cast into the lake of fire. This is the second _______________." Revelation 20:7-9, 14
In this lesson we find that man's purpose for living now is to live for God in this life, and prepare for eternal life with Jesus Christ our Saviour and not be included among the wicked inhabitants of the earth who will not love and obey God, and who will be destroyed in the second death. The Bible teaches us how to be saved from sin and the second death!
As a child, I wanted to serve God, not out of fear, but because He loved me, and died on the cross for me. The next lesson will help us see the love of God, and His salvation!
Our next study will discover "How Mankind is Saved."
For more Bible texts on what happens to the human being at death, click on the Appendix below.