Time Magazine, 8/4/97, page 56
In an interview with TIME, President Hinckley seemed intent on downplaying his faith's distinctiveness. The church's message, he explained, "is a message of Christ. Our church is Christ-centered. He's our leader. He's our head. His name is the name of our church." At first, Hinckley seemed to qualify the idea that men could become gods, suggesting that "it's of course an ideal. It's a hope for a wishful thing," but later affirmed that "yes, of course they can." (He added that women could too, "as companions to their husbands. They can't conceive a king without a queen.") On whether his still holds that God the Father was once a man, he sounded uncertain, "I don't know that we teach it. I don't know that we emphasize it...I understand the philosophical background behind it, but I don't know a lot about it, and I don't think others know a lot about it."
Gordon B. Hinckley, What of the Mormons?, p.6
God is in form like a (1) man. He is personal. He speaks, and has spoken to man. (2) He is exalted, and by human standards he is all-wise and all-powerful.
(1) Correction: God is Spirit.
John 4:24 "God is Spirit, and those who worship Him must worship in spirit and truth."
(2) Correction: God is not an exalted man.
Malachi 3:6 "For I am the LORD, I do not change."
Note: Liars will not inherit the Kingdom of God.
Revelation 21:8 "But the cowardly, unbelieving, abominable, murderers, sexually immoral, sorcerers, idolaters, and all liars shall have their part in the lake which burns with fire and brimstone, which is the second death."
Gordon B. Hinckley, What of the Mormons?, p.6
These are Mormon aphorisms. Life is purposeful. It is progressive. It leads to Godhood.
Correction: Human beings will never become gods.
Matthew 22:29-30 Jesus answered and said to them, "You are mistaken, not knowing the Scriptures nor the power of God. For in the resurrection they neither marry nor are given in marriage, but are like angels of God in heaven."
Note: Liars will not inherit the Kingdom of God.
Revelation 22:15 But outside (the Kingdom) are dogs and sorcerers and sexually immoral and murderers and idolaters, and whoever loves and practices a lie.
Gordon B. Hinckley, What of the Mormons?, p.6
Man is in reality a child of God.
Correction: Not everyone is a child of God.
John 8:44 You are of your father the devil, and the desires of your father you want to do. He was a murderer from the beginning, and does not stand in the truth, because there is no truth in him. When he speaks a lie, he speaks from his own resources, for he is a liar and the father of it.
Correction: One must sincerely ask Jesus Christ to come into their life to be a child of God.
John 1:12-13 But as many as received Him, to them He gave the right to become children of God, even to those who believe in His name: who were born, not of blood, nor of the will of the flesh, nor of the will of man, but of God.
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Gordon B. Hinckley, What of the Mormons?, p.6
There is none of the doctrine of predestination in Mormon theology.
Correction: Mormon theology down plays the sovereignty of God.
Romans 8:30 Moreover whom He predestined, these He also called; whom He called, these He also justified; and whom He justified, these He also glorified.
Ephesians 1:11-12 ...in whom also we have obtained an inheritance, being predestined according to the purpose of Him who works all things according to the counsel of His will, that we who first trusted in Christ should be to the praise of His glory.
Gordon B. Hinckley, What of the Mormons?, p.7
There is nothing of reincarnation, nothing of Nirvana, nothing of a static heaven, nor a hell of hot flame in Latter-day Saint philosophy.
Correction: Jesus Christ disagrees with the Latter-day Saint philosophy.
Matthew 5:22 "But I say to you that whoever is angry with his brother without a cause shall be in danger of the judgment. And whoever says to his brother, 'Raca!' shall be in danger of the council. But whoever says, 'You fool!' shall be in danger of hell fire.
Mark 9:47-48 "And if your eye makes you sin, pluck it out. It is better for you to enter the kingdom of God with one eye, than having two eyes, to be cast into hell fire where 'their worm does not die and the fire is not quenched.'"
John 15:6 "If anyone does not abide in Me, he is cast out as a branch and is withered; and they gather them and throw them into the fire, and they are burned."
Gordon B. Hinckley, What of the Mormons?, p.9
Fundamental in Mormon theology is the principle of modern revelation. "We believe all that God has revealed, all that he does now reveal, and we believe that he will yet reveal many great and important things." This is the official statement of the doctrine.
Correction: God does not use prophets anymore.
Hebrews 1:1-2 God, who at various times and in different ways spoke in time past to the fathers by the prophets, has in these last days spoken to us by His Son, whom He has appointed heir of all things, through whom also He made the worlds.
Note: The foundation of the true church of God is not continually being laid.
Ephesians 2:19-22 Now, therefore, you are no longer strangers and foreigners, but fellow citizens with the saints and members of the household of God, having been built on the foundation of the apostles and prophets, Jesus Christ Himself being the chief cornerstone, in whom the whole building, being joined together, grows into a holy temple in the Lord, in whom you also are being built together for a habitation of God in the Spirit.
Gordon B. Hinckley, Conference Report, October 1959, p.119
I repeat, if the Book of Mormon is true, the Church is true, for the same authority under which this sacred record came to light is present and manifest among us today. It is a restoration of the Church set up by the Savior in Palestine. It is a restoration of the Church set up by the Savior when he visited this continent as set forth in this sacred record.
Correction: Jesus Christ disagrees with Gordon B. Hinckley.
Matthew 16:18 "And I also say to you that you are Peter, and on this rock I will build My church, and the gates of Hell shall not prevail against it."
Correction: The apostle Paul disagrees with Gordon B. Hinckley.
Ephesians 3:20-21 Now to Him who is able to do exceedingly abundantly above all that we ask or think, according to the power that works in us, to Him be glory in the church by Christ Jesus throughout all ages, world without end. Amen.
January 29, 2008
Sacramento Bee
On Monday, Mormon boys all over the region wore white shirts and ties – standard missionary attire – and teenage girls wore modest dresses to school.
They did this as a special tribute to Gordon B. Hinckley, the president and prophet of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, who died Sunday at the age of 97.
Though he met with world leaders – some of whom are expected to attend his funeral later this week in Utah – Hinckley had a special connection with the faithful.
"He's had a tremendous influence on my life and many others," said Alan Fisher, church member and chief executive officer of East Lawn Memorial Parks and Mortuaries. "Watching him, at his age, dedicate the temple here was amazing."
Many of the Sacramento region's 82,000 Mormons will gather in one of the 21 local meetinghouses to watch Hinckley's funeral via satellite Saturday.
Hinckley visited Northern California several times over the years. During his most recent trip in 2006, he dedicated the Sacramento Temple in Rancho Cordova. He wore his customary white temple suit and laughed when he spilled mortar.
William Marble, a church member and Woodland city councilman, met Hinckley in 1972. Marble was serving as a church missionary in Peru.
"We were young, away from home in a foreign country and around so much poverty," says Marble. "He came and lifted our spirits and reminded us of the work to do. He was very down to earth."
Hinckley, who started with the church in 1937 as a Sunday school teacher, oversaw the growth of the faith that church leaders say now has more than 12 million members worldwide.
Yet those who know him said he was a humble man. Hinckley lived in a modest, 1,600-square-foot, two-bedroom apartment in Salt Lake City, according to Richard H. Winkel, president of the Sacramento Temple who visited Hinckley at his home. "It was nice but not fancy at all," said Winkel.
A former public relations executive for the church, Hinckley was conscious of perception.
"He never traveled in a Cadillac or Mercedes," said Winkel, who added Hinckley counseled other church leaders to live modestly. "He didn't have to, but he did."
In his later years, Hinckley walked with a cane, but his age didn't dampen his enthusiasm. He was scheduled to oversee the opening of another temple in Idaho next week.
"We feel about him the same way the Catholics feel about the pope," said Lisa West, regional spokeswoman for the church. "People loved him."