The Singles Ward DVD

The Mormon Jesus:

1. The literal son of god and his goddess wife begotten in the pre-existence.
2. The brother of all spirits born in heaven in the premortal existence.
3. One of 3 gods in the godhead.
4. The Trinity is three separate gods.
5. First one to receive a spirit body.
6. Atoned for sin on the cross and in the garden of Gethsemane.


The Christian Jesus:

1. Not the literal son of god and his goddess wife.
2. Not the brother of all spirits born in heaven in a premortal existence.
3. Not one of 3 gods in the godhead.
4. The Trinity is 3 persons in one God.
5. Was always spirit from eternity.
6. Atoned for sin on the cross alone


Mormon Prophet Admits He Believes in Another Christ - Not the Traditional Jesus
By James K. Walker

Paris, France - In a surprising admission during last month's three nation European speaking trip, Mormon president Gordon B. Hinckley stated that the Christ he believes in is not the same Christ as the one followed by those outside the LDS Church.
Hinckley quoted unnamed critics of the LDS Church who claim that Mormons do not believe in the traditional Christ and then he agreed with them.

The LDS Church News reported: "In bearing testimony of Jesus Christ, President Hinckley spoke of those outside the Church who say Latter-day Saints 'do not believe in the traditional Christ. No, I don't. The traditional Christ of whom they speak is not the Christ of whom I speak. For the Christ of whom I speak has been revealed in this the Dispensation of the Fullness [sic] of Times'" (June 20, 1998,

Christians should ask, "Which Christ?" The Bible warns of false teachers who promote "another Jesus whom we have not preached" (2 Corinthians 11:4). The Apostle Paul warned the Corinthians not to believe everyone who preached "Jesus." The true Jesus was based on the tradition of apostolic preaching - the Jesus "we preached." Paul compared the preaching another Christ outside of that tradition with the deception of the serpent in the Garden of Eden (2 Corinthians 11:4, Genesis 3 1:4-5). In the same context, Paul warned the Church to beware of ".false apostles, deceitful workers, transforming themselves into the apostles of Christ" (2 Corinthians 11:13).

Additional Information, or Actually Another Jesus?
It is interesting that Hinckley states that the beliefs of traditional Christians were so different than that of Latter-day Saints, that their traditional Jesus "is not the Christ of whom I speak." It is not just some different information about the same Jesus but a completely different Jesus.

Polygamy:

The Mormon church is well known for its equivocations. The new and everlasting covenant of plural marriage is perhaps the best example of Mormon equivocation. Under threat of exile to Mexico the Mormon church officially abolished polygamy in the earthly realm in 1890. However, by virtue of secret temple ceremonies Mormon males like Joseph Smith, Brigham Young, as well as contemporary Mormon leaders remain sealed to multiple wives in the heavenly realm. Thus, the practice of polygamy promoted by Smith - who, by the way, had 27 plural wives, and Young, who had 55 wives and 57 children - was merely transferred to the Celestial Kingdom.

By relegating polygamy to the eternal realm Mormon leaders managed to comply externally with societal norms while still maintaining an eschatological basis for the subjugation of women. Such spiritual sanctioning of polygamy was not only an affront to the value and dignity of women, but stands in direct opposition to Jesus' teaching that at the resurrection people will neither marry nor be given in marriage.

The Mormon practice of polygamy finds its genesis in the teachings and practices of Joseph Smith who, in 1843, received an eternally binding revelation. According to Smith, apart from the practice of polygamy there was no hope of attaining to godhood. The everlasting commandment of polygamy revealed to Smith was considered so binding that Brigham Young ominously declared "If any deny the plurality of wives and continue to do so, I promise you that you will be damned."

And, of course, the Old Testament clearly reveals the strife and temptations that accompany the practice. Solomon, of course, is the quintessential example of one whose legacy of faithfulness was compromised because of his polygamous behavior. Despite world-renowned wisdom Solomon's peaceful and prosperous rule ended in idolatrous strife, scandal and in civil strife as well because the Bible tells us his wives turned his heart after other gods. There is, therefore, absolutely no biblical support for the Mormon practice of polygamy either in this life or the next.


Mormonism and the Claim to Restoration:

Mormons claim that there was a falling away from the faith after the death of the Apostles. Does this mean that the church needed to be restored through Mormonism?
Joseph Smith, the founding father of Mormonism, built his institution on the premise that the Christian church was completely overtaken by apostasy. In other words, Smith claimed that the church established by Jesus in the first century was completely nonexistent by the 19th century. This has been the position of all subsequent leaders of the Mormon church, even to this very day. To quote Mormon Apostle Orson Pratt: "Jesus... established his kingdom on the earth...the kingdoms of this world made war against the kingdom of God, established eighteen centuries ago, and they prevailed against it, and the kingdom ceased to exist (Journal of Discourses, 13:125)." Of course, this meant that the church had to be restored.

In response to this teaching, we should ask Mormons exactly how the church could manage to glorify God "throughout all generations" -- as the Apostle Paul clearly wrote in Ephesians 3:21 -- if they fell into total apostasy. We should also point out that Ephesians 4:11-16 talks about the church growing spiritually mature, not spiritually degenerate. The Bible does affirm that there will be apostates, but according to 1 Timothy 4:1 only "some [not all] will abandon the faith." This passage alone is enough to prove that Mormonism is wrong about the church falling away altogether.

Smith and other Mormons need to realize that they're teaching the exact opposite of what Jesus Christ of Nazareth proclaimed in Matthew 16:18 -- namely, that not even the gates of hell would prevail against the church of God. Furthermore, Hebrews 12:28 states that God's kingdom is unshakable, while Daniel 2:44 refers to it as indestructible. There can be no doubt that Mormonism contradicts what the Bible says about the perseverance of God's people -- the living church of God. Remember, it was Joseph Smith who attacked Christianity. He said that all their sects were wrong, their creeds an abomination, and their professors corrupt.


Other Doctrines:
1) God the Father is married and there is a Mother God (Answers to Gospel Questions, Joseph Fielding Smith, Vol. 3, pp. 143-144).

2) All men and women who have ever lived on Earth are the spirit offspring of Heavenly Father and Heavenly Mother. Every person was conceived and born in a pre-existent spiritual realm (Mormon Doctrine, p. 589).

3) Black people are black because of their misdeeds in the pre-existence (Three Degrees of Glory, LDS Apostle Melvin J. Ballard, p. 21).

4) The Bible is considered usable, but suspect due to its many errors and missing parts (Articles of Faith No. 8, Ensign January 1989, pp. 25, 27


Websites for information on Mormonism:

[...]

Remember that it isn't the Christian church that is attacking Mormonism. It is Mormonism that has attacked the Christian church -- believing or stating that true Christianity disappeared from the earth for over 1800 years -- and let's not forget that. Contrary to biblical teachings they also believe in more than one God, that God is a literal man, that men can become gods, that Jesus was the spirit brother of Lucifer, not to mention salvation by works and not by grace (Isa. 43:10; Mark 12:29; John 4:24; John 1:1-14; Gal. 2:14-16; Eph. 2:8,9).

The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints
According to the official story of the LDS Church, in 1820 Smith was visited by God the Father and God the Son after praying about which church he should join. He was told by Jesus, he should join none of them for they were "all wrong" and all the Christian church's doctrines "were an abomination" (Joseph Smith - History 19, Pearl of Great Price).
DOCTRINES
TRINITY: Mormonism is a polytheistic religion. Joseph Smith declared, "I will preach on the plurality of Gods. I have always declared God to be a distinct personage, Jesus Christ a separate and distinct personage from God the Father, and the Holy Ghost was a distinct personage and a Spirit: and these three constitute three distinct personages and three Gods" (Teachings of the Prophet Joseph Smith, p. 370).
Mormon Apostle Bruce R. McConkie spoke about the Godhead in this way, "Plurality of Gods: Three separate personages: Father, Son, and Holy Ghost, comprise the Godhead. As each of these persons is a God, it is evident, from this standpoint alone, that a plurality of Gods exists. To us, speaking in the proper finite sense, these three are the only Gods we worship. But in addition there is an infinite number of holy personages, drawn from worlds without number, who have passed on to exaltation and are thus gods" (Mormon Doctrine, pp. 576-577).
GOD THE FATHER: Joseph Smith explained, "I am going to tell you how God came to be God. We have imagined and supposed that God was God from all eternity. I will refute that idea, and take away the veil, so that you may see. He was once a man like us; yea, that God himself, the father of us all, dwelt on an earth, the same as Jesus Christ Himself did" (LDS History of the Church, Vol. 6, p. 305).
GOD THE SON: Brigham Young stated, "The birth of the Saviours was a natural as are the births of our children; it was the result of natural action. He partook of flesh and blood, was begotten of his Father, as we were of our father" (Journal of Discourses, Vol. 8, p. 115). Mormon Apostle McConkie explained, "And Christ was born into the world as a literal Son this Holy Being; he was born in the same personal, real, and literal sense that any mortal son is born to a mortal father. He was begotten, conceived and born in the normal and natural course of events (Mormon Doctrine, p. 742).
Jesus, according to Milton Hunter of the LDS First Council of the Seventy, is the brother of Lucifer. "The appointment of Jesus to be the Savior of the world was contested by one of the other sons of God. He was called Lucifer, son of the morning. Haughty, ambitious, and covetous of power and glory, this spirit-brother of Jesus desperately tried to become the Savior of mankind" (The Gospel Through the Ages, p. 15).
GOD THE HOLY GHOST/HOLY SPIRIT: In Mormonism a distinction is drawn between the Holy Ghost and the Holy Spirit. As LDS Apostle Marion G. Romney stated, "The Holy Ghost is a person, a spirit, the third member of the Godhead" (Ensign May 1977, 43-44). The sixth LDS prophet, Joseph F. Smith explains that the Holy Spirit is not a person but rather an impersonal force. "You may call it the Spirit of God, you may call it the influence of God's intelligence, you may call it the substance of his power; no matter what it is called, it is the spirit of intelligence that permeates the universe" (Mormon Doctrine, McConkie, pp. 752-753).
MAN'S DESTINY: As Lorenzo Snow, fifth prophet of the LDS Church exclaimed, "As man now is, God once was; as God now is, man may be" (Ensign, February 1982, pp. 39-40). This means that every worthy male, according to the standards of Mormonism, will become a god and rule over their own planet. But what about the women? That question was answered by Joseph Fielding Smith, tenth prophet of the Church, when he spoke of Man's salvation or exaltation as it is called in Mormonism.
"The Father has promised us that through our faithfulness we shall be blessed with the fullness of his kingdom. In other words we will have the privilege of becoming like him. To become like him we must have all the powers of godhood; thus a man and his wife when glorified will have spirit children who eventually will go on an earth like this one we are on and pass through the same kind of experiences, being subject to mortal conditions, and if faithful, then they also will receive the fullness of exaltation and partake of the same blessings. There is no end to this development; it will go on forever. We will become gods and have jurisdiction over world, and these world will be peopled by our own offspring. We will have an endless eternity for this" (Doctrines of Salvation, Vol. 2, 48).
FOR FURTHER INFORMATION
The Maze of Mormonism (Regal Book) by Walter Martin and Speaking the Truth in Love to Mormons by Mark Cares, Speaking the Truth in Love to Mormons
1) Is Mormonism Christian, Gordon Fraser. This is a good general information, easy to read book. Some documentation, 192 page
2) Mormonism, Mama and Me, Thelma Geer. This book is an easy to read, well documented book. It has some personal testimony intermingled with the information. 285 page paperback

You don't have to be a Mormon to enjoy Singles Ward. The humor is good. The story is engrossing and it's well made. If you enjoy Singles Ward you'll also like "The R.M." and "Sons Of Provo".

Although I am no longer a member of the L.D.S. faith, and their doctrine will always seem "off the wall" to me, I found this movie to be very enjoyable. This is a "mainstream" comedy that emphasizes the more normal side of the L.D.S. religion. This is the only L.D.S. based movie that I have enjoyed watching (and the only L.D.S. based movie that is worth watching). The soundtrack of the L.D.S. "primary" songs in the movie are wonderfully sung in a positive, upbeat manner. This is definitely worth your time and money. Enjoy!

I know many people who get quite defensive when I tell them of my dislike for the movie, "The Singles Ward." Right away, I hear things like, "It's people like you who give good movies a bad name," or "Oh sure! And I suppose a Hollywood movie, with plenty of swearing and potty humor, would have been better?"

To set the record straight, I love movies that are void of curse words and/or potty humor. In fact, I'll gladly watch a Jimmy Stewart or Cary Grant movie anyday over most of the crap movies Hollywodd puts out nowadays. But just because a movie script is clean, doesn't instantly make it high quality, and an example of this is, "The Singles Ward."

The premise sounds interesting enough. A divorced man tries to find his way back into the LDS Church via the singles scene. But this is what dissapointed me the most about, "The Singles Ward" is that it could have been a whole lot better.

Each and every character in this film is so one-dimensional that it was almost painful to watch. The two main characters for example, Jonathan and Cammie, just felt like Utah-LDS stereotypes. And at times, the supporting cast almost seemed like a bunch of robots, just going through the motions of how the outside world views LDS Church members.

Towards the end of this film, there are several moments where the focus turns from comedic to dramatic, but I felt this just made the movie worse. It's almost as if the director was apoligizing for how bad the script was, and had decided to plug in a little tension in order to somehow make the movie better. Sorry, but it just makes the movie sink faster.

The cameos of all the local LDS celebrities is more distracting than anything else. And the music in this movie, hate to say it, but it was embarrassing to listen too.

The only kudos I give this movie is that it did attempt to address a subject matter that hits close to home for many Latter-Day Saints - The dating and courship scene. Maybe the next time someone makes a film on this subject, the characters can be real people with real thoughts and emotions, instead of just cardboard cutouts in a cardboard cutout world.

There are many people, like myself, who demand high quality movies, minus the language, filth and violence, and there are indeed many movies out there like that. Sadly, "The Singles Ward" isn't one of them.

I am a Mormon and I grew up in the church.Even if we don't have any Singles Ward in this country,we can still relate about the agony when it comes to finding an eternal companion.And what's great about this movie is that it pokes fun at our frustrations,without being preachy.There are lots of genuinely funny moments in this movie,including the ones when Jonathan is doing "stand up comedy" (Seven Brides and One Brother!) and when he was caught by his friends talking alone,etc.
I dont think we should treat this movie too seriously.Though this movie will inspire us and will remind us about how "cool" it is to be a Mormon,this is mainly a romantic comedy,its not necessary (at least in this movie) to include all the teachings of our church.
I think this is the best Mormon Movie so far (haven't seen "The Best Two Years" and "Home Teachers" though)."The RM" is really great too I highly recommend it.I didnt like "Charly" and "The Other Side of Heaven" that much.