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The Collapse of False Religion is Inevitable
Michal is a treasure. She is part of a ministry to the lost Amish as we minister to the Mormons. She still owes me an Amish Fry Pie. I may never have the opportunity of returning to Ohio for my pie, but we will enjoy eternity with God. Our eternal experience will be so much more amazing than Amish food.
In a recent telephone conversation, she said something that stuck with me, “Every religion except biblical Christianity collapses upon itself”. I have discovered that the collapse of false religion is inevitable and predictable. Michal is so wise!
The Collapse of False Religion in Silence
I first witnessed the collapse of false religion when Rock Permann, a former Bishop and current Stake President, and the sitting Rockland Bishop stopped by my home. They invited me to return to Mormonism. I agreed, subject to a single condition. Boldly, I insisted that I have eternal life and I know it. I know because an apostle of the Lord Jesus Christ said so.
These things have I written unto you that believe on the name of the Son of God; that ye may know that ye have eternal life, and that ye may believe.
1 John 5:13, KJV
I promised to return to Mormonism if they could provide a Mormon doctrine or scripture that is as good or better than 1 John 5:13. They quickly agreed so I reminded them that God is not the author of confusion.1 Consequently, I will reject their assurance if it can be contradicted by equally binding Mormon scripture or doctrine. Any contradiction would prove their assurance to be from a source other than God. They seemed troubled with my conditions and asked for a week to prepare and I obliged.
This event happened on my front porch in the summer of 2020. I write this in January 2025. We are rapidly approaching the fifth anniversary of that event, and still, this Bishop and Stake President remain silent and, if possible, invisible. In their silent invisibility, I see and hear the collapse of false religion.
Reminiscing About Mormon Bishops in Rockland, Idaho
As Grace and I drove from our home to Pocatello, Idaho, I began reminiscing about former and current Rockland, Idaho Mormon Bishops. To the best of my recollection, ten are still living.
I have made a concerted effort to visit and share the gospel with them all. I began recounting my conversations and the striking similarities that were present. Each boiled down to the same basic question: How will you be saved, and can you know you have eternal life? In every case, these Rockland Bishops could not answer. In each refusal, I witnessed the collapse of false religion.
With a degree of sadness, I recalled every visit and the resulting conversation.
One Mormon Bishop heard the gospel preached on his front porch. Another heard it in his living room. A third heard the gospel on my porch, at his door, and at a Pioneer Day celebration. I preached the gospel in a Bishop’s garage. I spoke of the gospel to a fifth Bishop as I sat on his couch. Another Bishop, now Stake President, Rock Permann, has heard the gospel on the street, on my porch, and in his home. I stood on another Bishop’s driveway and he became the seventh. The eighth was stringing Christmas lights when I pulled my Harley to a stop. We spoke of the gospel and the nature of Christ. The ninth Bishop first heard the gospel preached at the Pocatello, Idaho Temple open house. He has since heard it over lunch, in his barnyard, and from his back porch.
Though the conversations with these men were varied in scope, one point remains firmly consistent. None of these men could tell me how they, their spouses, children, and congregations could be saved. What question is more pressing for a person who claims to follow Jesus? With each blank stare, I witnessed the collapse of false religion.
As Grace and I progressed toward Pocatello, I lamented that one Bishop had not yet heard the gospel. He is the newest Rockland Bishop. I spoke of how I hoped to share the good news of Jesus with him.
God Hears and Makes a Way
When we arrived in Pocatello, I dropped Grace at the front door of Costco and drove around to fill the tank with gas. Afterward, I parked and began my search for Grace. I think maybe God listens to our conversations and acts on them. Halfway across the parking lot, I saw the tenth Bishop moving in the opposite direction. I smiled, said hello, and shook his hand. Turning to walk with him, I asked if I could drop by for a visit. He had previously forbidden me from coming on his property but he relented and said I would be welcome anytime.
Then he added, but you can’t come to church! Responding I asked, why is that? He responded, “It’s the law”.
I said it is not the law in the sense that there is a court order or legal action. The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints simply wrote a letter prohibiting me from going on church properties to attend church meetings. It is nothing more than a simple exercise of property rights, an unalienable right that belongs to every man. It is the same as when legalistic religious leaders cast Jesus and His disciples from the synagogues.
I posed a question. What’s more binding on you, a letter written by legalistic religious leaders, or the law of your god as canonized in two volumes of your scripture. I think he sensed a trap because he refused to answer. At any rate, here is the law of the Mormon god, a law this Mormon Bishop did not seem to know.
22Ye shall meet together oft; and ye shall not forbid any man from coming unto you when ye shall meet together, but suffer them that they may come unto you and forbid them not; 23But ye shall pray for them, and shall not cast them out; and if it so be that they come unto you oft ye shall pray for them unto the Father, in my name.
Book of Mormon, 3 Nephi 18:22-23
5And again I say unto you, ye shall not cast any out of your sacrament meetings who are earnestly seeking the kingdom—I speak this concerning those who are not of the church. 6And again I say unto you, concerning your confirmation meetings, that if there be any that are not of the church, that are earnestly seeking after the kingdom, ye shall not cast them out.
Doctrine & Covenants 46:5-6:
You’re A Whore and Everybody Knows It
Not wanting to get off in the weeds over these laws, I asked, can we sweep all this aside? Can we sit together, open those books you hold to be scripture, and discover how we can be saved? I never saw his answer coming and it surprised me. “You’re a whore and everybody knows it!“
Joseph Smith Called Me Whore First
This Mormon Bishop is not the first to call me whore. In fact, he is upholding a grand Mormon tradition. In the Book of Mormon, Joseph Smith wrote,
And he said unto me: Behold there are save two churches only; the one is the church of the Lamb of God, and the other is the church of the devil; wherefore, whoso belongeth not to the church of the Lamb of God belongeth to that great church, which is the mother of abominations; and she is the whore of all the earth.
1 Nephi 14:10
Clearly, Joseph regarded the church he created to be the church of the Lamb of God. That leaves the rest of us out. That marks Christianity as the church of the devil, an abomination, and the whore of all the earth.
The Mormon church is an organization, a corporation. It is an entity.
The Christian church is far different. It is made up of living stones fit together for the glory of God. All believers are those stones.2 Therefore, by way of canonized Mormon scripture, Joseph Smith called us collectively and individually, whores. To my shame, I did the same as a misguided and uninformed Mormon man.
Evil Men Justify Evil Deeds
Ask a Mormon
- This Mormon Bishop claims to be an official representative of the only true church on the face of the earth. He claims to be called personally by God. He says he is strengthened by holy temple ordinances and covenants that guide him. He boasts that his church alone has living prophets and apostles. He claims to hold the Holy Priesthood after the order of Melchizedek. He thinks himself to be a High Priest. He imagines the receipt of personal revelation that the world cannot grasp. And, he thinks his underpants are better than mine. With all this home court advantage, whore was his best response when asked, how he will be saved. Does this noise not suggest the collapse of false religion?
He insisted that whore is not a derogatory term. But still, he was unable to think of a biblical passage where whore was used in an uplifting and building way. He attempted to soften the insult with the adjective, attention. He insisted that attention whore is not derogatory and to drive his point home, he demanded a definition of the term. I was unprepared, at that time, to define it authoritatively.
A Biblical Definition of Whore
I am, however, able to define the word now. The oldest text we have that uses the term is the Bible. This makes it the authoritative source for the use and meaning of the word. We find it in the Old and New Testaments. Consequently, we have definitions for the Hebrew and Greek versions of whore.
Zānâ in Hebrew speaks of sexual immorality, usually a woman. Even worse, zānâ speaks of the more serious sin of idolatry since Israel is generally regarded as the spouse of Jehovah. Consequently, the whore holds the wants and desires of the flesh above devotion to God.
Pornē is the Greek equivalent. It is essentially the same as the Hebrew definition with two exceptions. In the New Testament whore always points to a female. It also represents idolatry by pointing to Babylon, the seat of idolatry and the whore of the world.
Holy scripture provides some indication of the evil motivations and bad fruit of a whore.
27For a whore is a deep ditch; and a strange woman is a narrow pit. 28She also lieth in wait as for a prey, and increaseth the transgressors among men.
Proverbs 23:27-28
Whore, be it in the Old or New Testament, always speaks of sexually immoral idolaters.
Ask a Mormon
- How can the addition of an adjective or a modifier render whore as a non-derogatory term?
The Mormon church claims to be the full restoration of the church Jesus established in the New Testament. Whore in the New Testament points to females only. Therefore, when this Mormon leader called me a whore, by necessity he forced a gender reassignment. This is not as far-fetched as one may think. The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints has already made that unbiblical leap.
This Bishop attacked by evoking the opinion of everybody when he said “and everybody knows it“.
I must admit that these attacks cut pretty deep. There is an undeniable sting that reaches my core. I have discovered that the longer I live in Christ, the less painful these wounds have become.
I have an unshakable assurance that my belief has been accounted to me as righteousness.3 I have a perfect assurance that I have eternal life in this moment, instant, and hour.4 The more Jesus lives in me, the more rapidly I heal and return to rejoicing. If God be with me, who can be against?5
1The Lord is my light and my salvation; whom shall I fear? The Lord is the stronghold of my life; of whom shall I be afraid? 2When evildoers assail me to eat up my flesh, my adversaries and foes, it is they who stumble and fall. 3Though an army encamp against me, my heart shall not fear; though war arise against me, yet I will be confident.
Psalm 27:1-3
13And who is he that will harm you, if ye be followers of that which is good? 14But and if ye suffer for righteousness’ sake, happy are ye: and be not afraid of their terror, neither be troubled; 15But sanctify the Lord God in your hearts: and be ready always to give an answer to every man that asketh you a reason of the hope that is in you with meekness and fear:
1 Peter 3:13-15
I have discovered that personal attacks and false accusations are the last bastion of safety for those unable to defend their faith. If there is a Sanhedrin Playbook, chapter one must be titled, Bear False Witnesses. They did it to Jesus,6 Peter & John,7 Stephen,8 Paul,9 and more. They exiled John on Patmos and killed the remaining Apostles. No doubt false witnesses were employed.
Wise men bear false witness sparingly to maintain an illusion of truth. Foolish men go overboard to the extreme until every rational mind sees the subterfuge. Wicked men are wicked because first, they were foolish.
You can’t use everybody to condemn somebody unless you intimately know every anybody that makes up the whole of everybody. That was a strangely constructed sentence but I urge you to read it again and fully comprehend its meaning.
Such an attack is a flat lie unless the attacker is intimate with every somebody who makes up all of everybody. Is it remotely possible that this Mormon Bishop knows every somebody well enough to speak authoritatively for the whole? If not, he is guilty of false accusations and blatant intentional lies.
Who is not vulnerable to such an attack? How difficult is it to convince a few somebodies to join forces and discredit a single anybody? In a vacuum, these few imagine they are everybody with the authority to speak for the whole. Is this hard to imagine? We see it every day.
Travel with me to first century Jerusalem. How difficult would it be to find a body of men who would jointly testify against Jesus? Can the same be said of Peter, John, Stephen, Paul, Silas, and others? When a man or a body of men condemn a disciple, Jesus prophesied it would be so.
Am I a disciple? That’s not for me alone to say. The final answer must come from God. But, If I am a disciple, men will gather and boldly declare, you are a *&$^#!!, and everybody knows it. Since the beginning, the employ of false witnesses has been a preferred strategy of the devil.
If the world hates you, know that it has hated me before it hated you.
John 15:18, ESV
They will put you out of the synagogues. Yes, the time comes that whoever kills you will think that he offers service to God.
John 16:2, WEB
The Mormon Definition
To be fair, the Mormon definition is likely the most relevant for this Bishop. I turned to the Mormon Bible Dictionary. This is an integrally published supplement to every Mormon Bible and in it found nothing. So, I turned to the Topical Guide which is a second integral supplement to the Mormon Bible. In it I found a section entitled, “Whore, Whoredom“. It reads, “See also Adulterer; Carnal Mind; Filthiness; Fornication; Harlot; Idolatry; Lust; Sexual Immorality”.
This Mormon Bishop attached Adulterer; Carnal Mind; Filthiness; Fornication; Harlot; Idolatry; Lust; and Sexual Immorality to my character. His accusations are fine if they can be established with verifiable evidence. Where is that evidence?
I also looked for a definition of slander and found, 1. Oral communication of false and malicious statements that damage the reputation of another. 2. A false and malicious statement or report about someone. Likewise, I looked up the definition for libel and found, legally indefensible publication or broadcast of words or images that are degrading to a person or injurious to his or her reputation.
Ask Your Bishop
- When this Mormon Bishop falsely applied Adulterer; Carnal Mind; Filthiness; Fornication; Harlot; Idolatry; Lust; and Sexual Immorality to myself, did he commit the crime of slander and/or libel?
- Does a man who practices slander and libel qualify to serve as a Mormon Bishop?
- Are slander and libel characteristics of a follower Jesus, Mormon or otherwise?
What is the Cost
When this Bishop called me a whore, he accused me without evidence. When he stood as a witness and spoke for everybody, he judged their thoughts and opinions without authority.
We are expected to judge between right and wrong. However, we are admonished against judging the minds, intentions, and hearts of other men. These things are invisible and incomprehensible to all but the individual and Jesus.
1Do not judge so that you will not be judged. 2For in the way you judge, you will be judged; and by your standard of measure, it will be measured to you. 3Why do you Rom 2:1 look at the speck that is in your brother’s eye, but do not notice the log that is in your own eye? 4Or how can you say to your brother, ‘Let me take the speck out of your eye,’ and behold, the log is in your own eye? 5You hypocrite, first take the log out of your own eye, and then you will see clearly to take the speck out of your brother’s eye.
Matthew 7:1-5, NASB
If this Bishop is to be judged as he judges, what will become of him? He judged me of being a sexually perverse and idolatrous woman who set aside the blessings and promises of God for the attention of the world. Nothing I said then and perhaps nothing I might say today will change his mind.
All things being equal, as described by Jesus, this Mormon Bishop is in dire trouble. He will be accused of something he never did, convicted, and cast into hell without the possibility of appeal. Unless he repents, his demise will evidence the collapse of false religion.
According to scripture, what will become of this man?
There is a Mormon passage of scripture that seems to apply. It identifies those who go to the lowest part of the Mormon Heaven, the Telestial Kingdom.
These are they who are liars, and sorcerers, and adulterers, and whoremongers, and whosoever loves and makes a lie.
Doctrine and Covenants 76:103
A second relevant passage is cut from the pages of the Bible.
But the fearful, and unbelieving, and the abominable, and murderers, and whoremongers, and sorcerers, and idolaters, and all liars, shall have their part in the lake which burneth with fire and brimstone: which is the second death.
Revelation 21:8
Both scriptures, Mormon and Biblical, specifically mention liars.
According to Mormon doctrine, the Telestial Kingdom is a place where the liar will be eternally separated from God and dwell unendingly among the most vial men and women who ever drew breath.
According to the Bible, liars will be eternally separated from God and dwell unendingly among the most vial men and women who ever drew breath.
Ask a Mormon
- Do the Telestial Kingdom and the lake of fire and brimstone represent a difference without a distinction?
- Where there is a difference without a distinction do we see the collapse of false religion?
There is Hope
In Mormon scripture and doctrine, there are many examples of hope for salvation. But, for every hope, there is an equally binding scripture that contradicts and destroys that hope.10 When hope is lost, the collapse of false religion becomes inevitable. In that hopelessness, these ten Mormon Bishops cannot tell me, or you, how they will be saved. Thus, they facilitate the collapse of false religion.
For God is not the author of confusion, but of peace, as in all churches of the saints.
1 Corinthians 14:33
The Bible is an unchanging continuum of uncontradicted hope. God’s Word blesses every believer with an unbreakable assurance of salvation. I beg you, ask me or find and ask a believing Christian. You will never regret your choice to seek and trust God.
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