David Koresh and Joseph Smith - Similarities!
After years of dealing not only with false doctrines, and writing about them, ad nauseum actually, I think the bottom line is the hold cults have on their members. For this reason, I've always attempted to direct my efforts to keeping people out of cults in the first place. In the end, not many members of cults will leave their group - they have become habituated to a certain way of life in the cult, and they are comfortable there. I don't care how much you cajole them or argue with them, or try to draw them by "baking cookies," as one guy on another site promises, people in cults are generally not reachable. They are the "true believers, and they tag us as "antis" or "enemies, "tools of Satan," or whatever. This goes not only for Mormons, but all cults out there. It's the nature of the beast!
Most of us here remember David Koresh. When I first began reading about him in the paper, I knew there was going to be big trouble. Instead of bringing in someone familiar with the mindset of cultists, the government sent in tanks, and so many died - so many children in fact! It was horrible, and as far as I'm concerned, Janet Reno was a fool culpable for the deaths of so many. You don't storm cultic headquarters with guns, because that just reinforces the cultists' beliefs that they are "in the truth," and those trying to attack them are "Satan's forces" trying to snatch them from the only way of salvation. The leader must be followed, even if it means death. It was the same thing with Jim Jone's cult - he led them off into the wilderness of Jonestown, stormily preached that the evil forces of hatred were posed to destroy them - the only recourse was to drink the Kool Aid and go into eternity with Jim, their spiritual father! A few would not drink - and they ran off into the jungle. A few survived.
In any case, I found this good article comparing Joseph Smith with Koresh. Since it's copyrighted, I'll simply link to it. I hope people interested in the subject will read it. Mormons out there - please read it and think:
http://www.watchman.org/cults/prophets.htm
Folks, cult leaders are considered above questioning by followers. Sadly, we find this in Mormonism. Joseph Smith, for instance, asked Heber Kimball for his young, 14 year old daughter, as a "plural wife," after he told poor Heber he wanted his wife, "Vilate." This isn't hearsay, it's in Mormon-written books. He primed the pump by telling Heber he wanted Vilate, and then said, "oh I'm only testing you, it's Helen I want". Anybody not in the Mormon cult would immediately see the wickedness in that - Mormons try to relate it to Abraham. Nuts! One time Smith was again "testing" Heber. Heber was on a horse, and Smith pointed to two trees in the distance which grew side by side and which no horse and rider could possibly fit through! He told Heber, "ride through the space between those two trees." Heber, not the most sharp knife in the drawer, grabbed his horses reins and prepared to race his horse to the trees - but Smith simply laughed, and stopped him - not wanting obviously to lose such a faithful, and blind, follower. He told Heber he was simply "testing" his loyalty. This is the way cult leaders play with one's mind.
Mormons WILL not to see these facts. They are able to rationalize away anything Smith ever did - while at the same time finding minor flaws in Christian leaders. Hey, I follow no man. I look at what they say and compare it with the Bible. For instance, I think Chuck Smith (founder of Calvary Chapels) was dead wrong and totally unscriptural in some things he's said and done - but I don't follow Chuck Smith, I follow Christ. Most people in Calvary Chapels would totally agree with me. I've left more than one Church when I found that things they taught (or practiced) conflicted with the Bible - I walked out of the Episcopal Church after 49 years. Why? Because it had become apostate. I follow Christ, and when I find that any Church conflicts with the Bible, I'm out of there. I have to follow the leading of the Holy Spirit, and put my trust in God and not in men. Men fail.
The cultic mindset of Jehovah's Witnesses, Mormons, Unity, Swedenborgians, etc., keeps people tied to men - and keeps them from coming to the foot of the cross, where salvation was won! The Lord Jesus is more than a mere man - He is God in the flesh - and He alone can deliver those ensnared in false doctrines.
