This post is "sketchy" (not qualitatively, but quantitatively).
You can believe what you want to believe, but you cannot be a Christian if you do not believe what the Bible says.
You can be a Mormon, but you cannot be a Christian and a Mormon at the same time, since a Christian believes the Bible as the only and final source of Divine authority.
Any teaching that contradicts the Bible is opposed to the word of God.
Brother Wade and I witnessed to a man yesterday (we will call him Mr. X). Mr. X told us about the many struggles he has faced in his life. This is not unusual when we witness to people. We care about them and their lives, and they understand our concern. After listening closely to his extensive problems, brother Wade asked him about his relationship with the Lord in the midst of all those troubles. Mr. X then gave a detailed account of his becoming a Mormon. This came out of left field and surprised us.
He told us that years ago, he had been visited by two Mormon "Elders" (missionaries). Per their instruction, he came to the conclusion that the Book of Mormon was the revelation of God. He mentioned several false beliefs during his lengthy statement. One error was the idea that Joseph Smith had to have divine instruction to write the Book of Mormon. He gave several faulty reasons for his belief.
I gave Mr. X the opportunity to explain his beliefs clearly, and then I interjected a Biblical response to his misplaced confidence.
I did not address Joseph Smith's plagiarizing the Bible and other writings of his day. This is a good point to make, but it relies on authorities aside from the Biblical record, and I wanted to present a Biblical argument only.
I told Mr. X (with examples), that over a period of many years, I had talked to a large number of Mormon "Elders" about this very subject and told him that without exception, the "Elders" had informed me that they believed "there is only one God." I would ask them several times, and they would repeat their assertion. I would finally tell the Mormon "Elders" that I knew what they actually believed, and after more denial, they would finally admit that they believe there is more than one god. I told Mr. X that the Mormon "Elders" had deliberately lied to me on those occasions. They knew full well that they believed in many gods, but they knew it would create a barrier between us (At this point his mind lost contact with what I was saying because he was trying to give me his canned Mormon answers, which are not grounded in the Bible, or history, or other facts.) His response was that I was mistaken about Mormon beliefs and that he never met an "Elder" that said the things that I said they told to me. I told Mr. X I was not surprised that they had not told him, but that this was their belief, nonetheless.
I won't go into the many errors we discussed, but it was interesting and sad to see a person who was so thoroughly misled that he could not even think clearly about facts, truth, revelation, logic. laws of interpretation, linguistics or history.
Mr. X would make blatantly erroneous statements concerning Biblical passages.
I would tell him that the Bible does not say what he claimed it said.
He would try to find evidence for his position by using his phone. Then he would not understand why he could not find what he had asserted.
I would tell him he could not find it in the Bible because it is not in the Bible.
I would then tell him to ask his phone if the Bible says there is only one God.
He asked, and the answer was, "Yes. The Bible says there is only one God." He was still perplexed.
I told him to ask his phone if the Bible says there is more than one true God.
He asked and his search said, "No." He became even mor perplexed and disconnected.
Though he denied that Mormons believe the Mormon "father god" was once a man and became a god, he did say that Jesus as a son of god (admitting that Mormonism teaches their "father god" had other sons, including Lucifer [Satan]).
He went on to say that "begotten" simply and strictly means "born."
Brother Wade pointed out that "only begotten," as used in John 3:16, means unique, one of a kind.
Of course, brother Wade was right, but Mr. X would not even accept the reality of sound hermeneutics, linguistics in Bible translation. He claimed that Bible translation is only human opinion and human opinion is wrong.
I agreed that legitimate Bible translators have opinions, but legitimate translations are based on scholarship rather than personal opinions.
Mr. X said that scholarship is "crap." (I don't use the word, which is a euphemism for human waste, but I am quoting Mr. X).
I repeated his words back to him and he agreed, "scholarship is crap."
I said, "Well, that explains why you believe Mormonism."
Isn't it strange that a person would criticize Biblical, linguistic, historical, cultural, theological scholarship (evidence) as being "crap," while blindly accepting the self-contradictory and unsubstantiated teaching of a faulty religion, and even accepting the teaching of a stranger who is only in his or her 20s as being accurate concerning information, on which our eternal destiny depends?
Mr. X continued to become more self-contradictory and disconnected.
Mr. X was probably the most conversant Mormon I have ever met, though he was also greatly misinformed by his Mormon teachers. He is the victim of Mormon theology and other Mormon deceptions. He does not even know what Mormonism actually teaches. He does not know what the Bible says and he certainly does not know the facts of, or the importance of original languages in translation.
There were other subjects discussed. My whole point was to get him to see that Mormonism denies and denounces Biblical revelation. He can be a Mormon if he wants to be, but he cannot be a Mormon and a Bible believer at the same time.
At some point I did tell him that throughout all the decades I have been talking to innumerable Mormon "Elders," that I invited to come back for a follow up discussion. They usually (if not always) said they were interested and they would come back. Like the Kingston Trio said in their song, THEY HAVE NEVER RETURNED. They lied to me. They lied to me about their beliefs, and they lied to me about their willingness to come back and talk more about Biblical Christianity.
My point is, you cannot trust a person who lies to you, and especially a person who lies to you about their beliefs in God.
Mr. X said that he liked the discussion we had and would be interested in further discussion. I gave him my card (he would not accept a Gospel tract I was offering him), and I invited him to call me sometime. I doubt he will.
If you have questions about Mormonism, let me know. Maybe we can talk about it.
You can believe what you want to believe, but you cannot be a Christian if you do not believe what the Bible says.
You can be a Mormon, but you cannot be a Christian and a Mormon at the same time, since a Christian believes the Bible as the only and final source of Divine authority.
Any teaching that contradicts the Bible is opposed to the word of God.
Brother Wade and I witnessed to a man yesterday (we will call him Mr. X). Mr. X told us about the many struggles he has faced in his life. This is not unusual when we witness to people. We care about them and their lives, and they understand our concern. After listening closely to his extensive problems, brother Wade asked him about his relationship with the Lord in the midst of all those troubles. Mr. X then gave a detailed account of his becoming a Mormon. This came out of left field and surprised us.
He told us that years ago, he had been visited by two Mormon "Elders" (missionaries). Per their instruction, he came to the conclusion that the Book of Mormon was the revelation of God. He mentioned several false beliefs during his lengthy statement. One error was the idea that Joseph Smith had to have divine instruction to write the Book of Mormon. He gave several faulty reasons for his belief.
I gave Mr. X the opportunity to explain his beliefs clearly, and then I interjected a Biblical response to his misplaced confidence.
I did not address Joseph Smith's plagiarizing the Bible and other writings of his day. This is a good point to make, but it relies on authorities aside from the Biblical record, and I wanted to present a Biblical argument only.
I told Mr. X (with examples), that over a period of many years, I had talked to a large number of Mormon "Elders" about this very subject and told him that without exception, the "Elders" had informed me that they believed "there is only one God." I would ask them several times, and they would repeat their assertion. I would finally tell the Mormon "Elders" that I knew what they actually believed, and after more denial, they would finally admit that they believe there is more than one god. I told Mr. X that the Mormon "Elders" had deliberately lied to me on those occasions. They knew full well that they believed in many gods, but they knew it would create a barrier between us (At this point his mind lost contact with what I was saying because he was trying to give me his canned Mormon answers, which are not grounded in the Bible, or history, or other facts.) His response was that I was mistaken about Mormon beliefs and that he never met an "Elder" that said the things that I said they told to me. I told Mr. X I was not surprised that they had not told him, but that this was their belief, nonetheless.
I won't go into the many errors we discussed, but it was interesting and sad to see a person who was so thoroughly misled that he could not even think clearly about facts, truth, revelation, logic. laws of interpretation, linguistics or history.
Mr. X would make blatantly erroneous statements concerning Biblical passages.
I would tell him that the Bible does not say what he claimed it said.
He would try to find evidence for his position by using his phone. Then he would not understand why he could not find what he had asserted.
I would tell him he could not find it in the Bible because it is not in the Bible.
I would then tell him to ask his phone if the Bible says there is only one God.
He asked, and the answer was, "Yes. The Bible says there is only one God." He was still perplexed.
I told him to ask his phone if the Bible says there is more than one true God.
He asked and his search said, "No." He became even mor perplexed and disconnected.
Though he denied that Mormons believe the Mormon "father god" was once a man and became a god, he did say that Jesus as a son of god (admitting that Mormonism teaches their "father god" had other sons, including Lucifer [Satan]).
He went on to say that "begotten" simply and strictly means "born."
Brother Wade pointed out that "only begotten," as used in John 3:16, means unique, one of a kind.
Of course, brother Wade was right, but Mr. X would not even accept the reality of sound hermeneutics, linguistics in Bible translation. He claimed that Bible translation is only human opinion and human opinion is wrong.
I agreed that legitimate Bible translators have opinions, but legitimate translations are based on scholarship rather than personal opinions.
Mr. X said that scholarship is "crap." (I don't use the word, which is a euphemism for human waste, but I am quoting Mr. X).
I repeated his words back to him and he agreed, "scholarship is crap."
I said, "Well, that explains why you believe Mormonism."
Isn't it strange that a person would criticize Biblical, linguistic, historical, cultural, theological scholarship (evidence) as being "crap," while blindly accepting the self-contradictory and unsubstantiated teaching of a faulty religion, and even accepting the teaching of a stranger who is only in his or her 20s as being accurate concerning information, on which our eternal destiny depends?
Mr. X continued to become more self-contradictory and disconnected.
Mr. X was probably the most conversant Mormon I have ever met, though he was also greatly misinformed by his Mormon teachers. He is the victim of Mormon theology and other Mormon deceptions. He does not even know what Mormonism actually teaches. He does not know what the Bible says and he certainly does not know the facts of, or the importance of original languages in translation.
There were other subjects discussed. My whole point was to get him to see that Mormonism denies and denounces Biblical revelation. He can be a Mormon if he wants to be, but he cannot be a Mormon and a Bible believer at the same time.
At some point I did tell him that throughout all the decades I have been talking to innumerable Mormon "Elders," that I invited to come back for a follow up discussion. They usually (if not always) said they were interested and they would come back. Like the Kingston Trio said in their song, THEY HAVE NEVER RETURNED. They lied to me. They lied to me about their beliefs, and they lied to me about their willingness to come back and talk more about Biblical Christianity.
My point is, you cannot trust a person who lies to you, and especially a person who lies to you about their beliefs in God.
Mr. X said that he liked the discussion we had and would be interested in further discussion. I gave him my card (he would not accept a Gospel tract I was offering him), and I invited him to call me sometime. I doubt he will.
If you have questions about Mormonism, let me know. Maybe we can talk about it.
No comments:
Post a Comment