Church of Christ: I think one of the most controversial doctrines on earth today is the stand the Mormon Church took on the Negro. The scriptures say "God is no respecter of persons" and yet the Negro in the Mormon Church had assumed a second-rate membership. They could partake of the sacrament and baptism but could not hold the priesthood which would allow them into the holy temples, pass the sacraments, and perform in positions of responsibility among the hierarchy of the Church. This doctrine, clearly racial prejudice, was taught by the founder of the Church, Joseph Smith, and is completely contrary to the doctrines of Christ. We read where Philip did not hesitate to baptize the Ethiopian eunuch. Paul said “For by one spirit are we all baptized into one body, whether we be Jew or Gentile, whether we be bond or free; and have been all made to drink one spirit". (1 Cor. 12:13) If I am not mistaken, it is supposed to do with some pre-existence idea where they sinned before they came to earth. This of course, contradicts the Bible, where it states "And the Lord formed man from the dust of the ground, and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life and man became a living soul." (Gen 2:7) While you are at it, maybe you can explain your unusual plural heavens, and prove from the scriptures your stand on the Negro, the life before, and the life hereafter. This is what I call "diverse and strange doctrines."
Missionaries: There was great wisdom when God told Isaiah, "For my ways are higher than your ways, and my thoughts than your thoughts saith the Lord." We believe in a pre-existence of life, and that we once lived with our Heavenly Father. We pointed out earlier in Isaiah 42:5 where the breath and spirit were entirely separate. In the creation we see the Lord placed His breath in man by breathing into his nostrils the breath of life, but his spirit had come from God as it says in Heb. 12:9. That is why the preacher wrote in Eccl. 12:7 "Then shall the dust return to the earth as it was and the spirit shall return unto God who gave it;” The Lord told Jeremiah, (1:1-5), "Before I formed thee in the belly, I knew thee; and before thou camest out of the womb, I sanctified thee, and I ordained thee to be a prophet unto the nations." Paul wrote, "We have had fathers of our flesh which corrected us and we gave them reverence, shall we not much rather be in subjection to the Father of spirits and live." (Heb. 12:9) The pre-existence was well know to the Lord's apostles as is recorded in John 9:1-3 when they asked the Lord if the blindness in the man in question had been caused by his parents or himself, as he had been born blind. In the pre-existence the negro was less valiant and therefore the dark skin was placed upon him as a curse and a blessing, and he was brought forth from the seed of Cain.