Witnessing to Mormons

I've been asked a few times about witnessing to Mormons. Here's some guidelines from a conversation that happened last night.

Introductory Points:

1. Don't come across as the heavy right off of the bat. The way I do this is invite them in, act as if I'm glad to see them (it's not an act; I love it when they come) and ask questions about them. Where are they from, how long have they been on their mission (it's a 2 year stint), and, "What's the craziest thing that's happened on your mission so far?" Here in TX they usually have some stories.

2. It helps a lot if you can honestly say you're a student of Mormonism from the historical perspective. I used to live in New York State, not all that far from Palmyra, where Smith claimed to find the golden tablets. I've also been to Susquehanna PA and stood on the spot where Smith claims to have had a visit from John the Baptist. ... See More

As a book dealer, I studied Mormonism from a historical perspective, reading both pro and con material so I could learn who the main people were in case I stumbled across Mormon documents or signed books at auction in Western NY. I have about 12 shelf feet of books on Mormonism, some rare, that I use to read up on it and am always buying more.

You don't need to do all of this to gain credibility, but if you can read enough to have an intelligent conversation with them about Smith, the persecutions the early Mormons faced as they were chased from town to town, you gain respect. Some books I'd recommend on this: Fawn Brodie's "No Man Knows My History" (considered anti-Mormon, but she was a Mormon when she wrote it and then was booted out of the church), Leonard Arrington's "Brigham Young; The American Moses" (pro-Mormon, but fairly balanced), and for a fair treatment of Mountain Meadow's Massacre, Juanita Brooks' work (also pro-Mormon, but Brooks was an excellent historian and was often suspected of being a "Jack-Mormon" but was not).

Since I still sell used\rare books, this is an easy transition because I usually have them sit on the couch in the living room that has floor to ceiling bookshelves with theology and biblical studies titles. They usually ask about them and it opens the door.

Another point that I usually try to make here is that I respect their history, that it is fascinating (it really is, apart from the doctrinal baloney) and that I respect their tenacity and their missionary emphasis (I do...you couldn't get all of the college age kids in one evangelical church to do a two year mission knocking on doors 8 hours a day, much less the thousands they have doing it every day). This is important because when I have to talk about Hell, judgment, the Law, etc., later in the conversation I always preface it with, "I'm not trying to persecute you. I'm simply sharing with you the differences between LDS doctrine and evangelical.

The Presentation:

Once I've done all of this, they do their presentation. These days they ask the person they talk to if they would like to pray and I do, asking the Lord to be glorified in our discussion of truth, that He would open eyes to the truth, etc. I let them do their thing, praying that the Lord would protect me from false doctrine as they are sharing. (BTW, I always make sure my kids and wife are in another room. Their doctrine is dangerous and their presentation is very manipulative and emotionally driven.)

Differences:

When I get the opportunity, I ask them, "What do you think the main difference is between Mormonism and evangelical Christianity?" Here's a list of what I cover:

1. The main one: who is God? Evangelicals say He is eternal God and is Spirit. Their god became a god through obedience, was once a man, and has a physical body. They usually point out that they do not believe in the Trinity. I say that A.W. Tozer said that the most important thing about you is what you believe about God. Then I point out 1 Cor. 6:9-10 and say, "Someone in this room is an idolater. It's either you or me. This is important because whoever it is, they are not going to inherit the Kingdom of God."

2. This brings us to the issue of what is the source of truth. For Mormons, it is the Book of Mormon, Doctrine and Covenants and Pearl of Great Price. It is also their "testimony" that Joseph Smith's vision was legit, the "burning in the bosom" that they experienced when they first heard of the vision or read the BoM.

What I try to deal with here is the idea that: 1) their subjective experience has to be evaluated by an absolute authority: The Word of God. I mention 2 Tim. 3:16-17; 2 Pet. 1:3. 2) The Bible and the LDS doctrine disagree and that is why I go with the Bible. I focus on the doctrine of God here, pointing out Mal. 3:16 about His immutability, Jn. 4:23-24 about His being Spirit (not flesh), etc. This is where I like to use the Commandments to bring knowledge of sin (usually in testimonial form, because now they are trained to deal with Way of the Master people and will gladly admit they are liars, thieves, adulterers at heart...when WoTM was new, they didn't do this). Then I say, "What you all teach is that a lying thieving, adulterous blasphemer can become god. The Bible says He is holy and has always been holy. Big difference."

Then I bring up an example from evangelical Christianity of the foolishness of using subjective experience as a guide for divine revelation. Todd Bentley. Here's a guy who claims he saw angels, had visions and heard from God. He kicked old ladies in the head and punched people in the gut to heal them, saying God told him to do it. I say, "Look, by your standard, I have no basis to say that he's wrong." They will usually say one of two things: 1) you know them by their fruits and 2) you check what they say against the Bible. (Bingo.) The truth is that Bentley did cheat on his wife and was disgraced and that it did NOT add up Scripturally.

I don't go near the moral issues with Joseph Smith here because they are ready for you on that one. I do focus on the Scriptural contradictions. A basic one that really reveals that THEY don't even agree with their own BoM is to ask them, "Where was Jesus born?" They say, "Bethlehem". Correct. But their book claims He was born in Jerusalem (Alma 7:10). Simple stuff, but it's so blatant that it rocks their world. (Josh Williamson taught me this one.)

3. They have a Scripture that says "We're saved by grace after all we can do." This is works righteousness. So I spend some time here on justification by faith alone, esp. 2 Cor. 5:21, but also Is. 64:6 and Rom. 5. This is where I spend most of my time.

4. I also talk about the Deity of Christ here (Jn. 1) and His perfect fulfillment of the Law. Also go to Hebrews 9-10 and point out that He is the fulfillment of the OT sacrificial system, priesthood, tabernacle\temple, etc. If He is the fulfillment, why do you need a temple?

5. After this I try to deal with false converts in Christian churches. They have Eph. 2:8-9 quoted to them all day. They see the Bible belt phonies here in TX and think the sinner's prayer is a joke. I agree with them. Point out Eph. 2:10 and the proper relationship of works. They are the RESULT of justification, not its CAUSE. You have to repeat this because they will agree with you and then turn around and repeat their mantra about doing all we can do.

You have to emphasize that the changed life of a believer is the result of being impacted by eternal God and His righteousness. I like to use Paul Washer's analogy of the logging truck: if I told you I was hit by an 18 wheeler logging truck five minutes ago, you'd expect to see evidence (like a grill imprinted across my forehead). When you encounter the holiness of God, His righteous demands, the person and work of Christ, it is a life changing deal (2 Cor. 5:17). Then I talk about hypocrites and what Jesus said in Matt. 7:21-23.

6. At the end of the conversation I tell them that when I invited them in, I had an agenda. I believe in Hell (Rev. 20:11-15) and I care about them. I owe it to them to tell them the truth if I think they are deceived. At least, if I really believe in Hell and that our gospel is different. I am careful to tell them I have the same concern for many evangelicals (this takes the persecution syndrome out of the equation).

There's more I could write on this, but these are the basics. I hope they're helpful. I find that this approach keeps the focus on the Gospel while dispelling a lot of the stuff they are trained to deal with. At least for the time being.

Sermon Index Revival Conference Live Feed

You can watch the live feed of the Revival Conferences from Dublin, Ireland (Nov. 13-14) and Wales (Nov. 17-19) here. We'll post the schedule (in their local time) once it becomes available. Featured speakers include Paul Washer, David Legge, Will Graham, Walid Bitar, Alan Bartley, Yorrie Richards, David Guzik, and Dyfrig Griffiths.

Fort Worth Kiss-in: Another Perspective

On Saturday, we went down to the Fort Worth Kiss In to preach the gospel with a couple of friends from Australia. For the record and speaking only for us, we weren't there to protest. We were there to simply preach the gospel. Why preach at a GLBT protest\event? Because people are there. And the one requirement for open-air preaching is that you preach where people are gathered. It's a simple concept, but worth pointing out since whenever you preach at a GLBT event, you're branded as being a "hater".

One question anyone who watches (and believes) the slanted coverage in the D\FW area should ask themselves is this: "If the evangelical Christians who were there were expressing so much hatred towards homosexuals, then why didn't the TV cameras catch images of screaming Christians yelling "God hates you!"? They got plenty of film of those of us who were actually preaching. Why didn't the broadcasts air it?

Because there wasn't any. What happened was a beautiful thing. Christians from across Fort Worth came to take a stand for morality while expressing genuine love to the homosexual community. The whole gospel was preached. At the end of the day, members of the Missionary Baptist Church that were there sang Amazing Grace while two lesbians stood in the middle of the circle vying for a photo opportunity. If they felt so much hatred, as one of them professed on TV, then why did she do her best to stand in the middle of a group of Christians?

When I first started preaching, I didn't even mention the sin of homosexuality. I did preach about lying, stealing, blasphemy, lust\adultery, but didn't touch the issue of the moment. This drove a couple of the homosexual hecklers batty. It was as if they would have preferred that I preach against homosexuality and screamed hatred. But because I was preaching the love of God for sinners as expressed at the Cross, they were disappointed. Even the news crews seemed disappointed because they left when it became apparent I wasn't going to sound like Westboro Baptist or any of the other sandwich board wearers.

The best Channel 11 could do was get a clip of me responding to a man who asked, "Did you say that unless I repent I will perish?" to which I respectfully and calmly said, "That is what the Bible says, sir."

Since this was the text of Jesus' first sermon, I guess I was in pretty safe company.

Some Christians will read this and say, "But how effective was this?" In our present day pragmatic evangelical malaise, this is the big question. Did it work?

A friend of mine who was at the event reports that one of the GLBT demonstrators came across the street to speak to her and the pastor of the Missionary Baptist Church. I saw them chatting as I left. She reports that this young man said that he wanted to leave the homosexual life and prayed to repent and trust Christ there on the spot.

Whether or not homosexuals get the right to marry (they probably will), can express public displays of affection (they do), or get the same benefits as married couples really does not matter as much as the salvation of one soul. Jesus said that there is great rejoicing in Heaven over the one sinner who repents. Praise God that He still uses His Word and the foolishness of preaching to save sinners.

Weeping over the State of Evangelism

When Sport becomes a god

This article will appear in an upcoming edition of The Justin Texan:

Football season is in full swing. This means that high school, college and NFL teams are doing battle on the gridiron and fans are buying tickets, merchandise, paying for special packages on their cable and satellite services to see more games, and starting fantasy football leagues. Athletes are training, some are taking steroids, and parents are carting their first graders to football fields to don pads and helmets and learning how to crash into each other like miniature torpedoes.

I like football. I watch it now and then. I’m originally from Buffalo, NY and used to go to a few Buffalo Bills games a year. I’ve been to a few playoff games in sub-zero weather. I’ve even been to a home opener here in Dallas (which is tough for a die-hard Bills fan) when we got tickets for chump change. I used to be involved in a couple of fantasy leagues and even won a league once.

Here’s my question for myself and everyone else who likes football: at what point does our enjoyment of the game become idolatry? When do we cross the line from healthy enjoyment to outright obsession? Is it when we skip church to go to a game? When we pay more money for merchandise or football equipment than we give to a local church? When we care more about not missing a practice than whether or not our friends know Christ? When you know your team’s playbook better than you know the Bible? Where is that line?

I’ll leave the specific answer to that question to everyone who names the name of Christ and is involved with sport. But generally speaking, theologians agree that idolatry happens whenever something or someone becomes more important than God Himself. I think it’s safe to say that comparing the time, money, and energy we give to the Lord (lit. “Master”) and sport would be a good place to start.

Why do we do this? Why are we content with so little? We find more joy in watching a millionaire run across a chalk line carrying the skin of a pig than we do in the one, true living God! Isn’t there something wrong with this picture? We care more whether our kids, whose ages are measured in single digits, can hit, shoot a gap, throw a ball and make a play than we care whether they know Christ! We’d gladly trade their soul for a Super Bowl ring! “Dereliction of duty” does not begin to describe the father who would settle for such a trade. It’s spiritual child abuse.

Even while you are reading this, if you’ve read this far and not tossed this paper out in a fit of rage, you are accusing me of taking my Christianity too far. Oh really? How far are we supposed to take it? I seem to recall something about Jesus saying that if anyone wanted to come after Him, he must deny himself, take up his cross and follow Him! In other words, as Dietrich Bonhoeffer said, “He bids us come and die.” Pretty extreme, I know, but I don’t write the mail, I just deliver it.

What really mystifies me is that professing Christians idolize a false god. Could it be due to the fact that they can “see” football, games, sport and can’t physically see the living God that they claim to love, serve and adore? Augustine was once approached by a heathen who showed him his idol and said, “Here is my god. Where is yours?” Augustine replied, “I cannot show you my God; not because there is no God to show but because you have no eyes to see Him.”

Do you have eyes to see Him? Or are you blind to the beauty, the magnificence, the power of this living God that we claim to serve? Are you dazzled with Friday night lights or the glory of God?

Declaration of War

Saints, please watch this and be moved. Life is not a game. It is not designed for your personal comfort or amusement. This is a war.

Texas Revival Series!!!

Please register today at www.TexasRevivalSeries.com.