By John L. Smith
© 2000 John L. Smith
|
Copyright
2000 I recently did what I tell people never to do. I let the Mormon missionaries in!
My reason for telling other to not let them in is the fact that
over 300,000 persons who let them in last year joined the Mormon Church.
Unless you have dealt successfully with many Mormons you are
unprepared to deal with the missionaries.
See 2nd John 10-11.
I am suggesting that you simply shake your head and say that you
are not interested. Don’t
call the dogs or turn on the sprinklers – just gently close the door.
Those two young fellows came to my house recently (someone had
ordered a Bible for me, after hearing one of their television offers).
I invited them in (Don’t you do it!) and rather quickly asked
what we should talk about; Modern-day revelation, prophets, marriage for
eternity or perhaps the doctrine of God?
(I did not mention several other subjects!)
They agreed that the doctrine of God was no doubt the most
important subject that we could discuss.
If one is wrong about God, his position on other related subjects
is somewhat irrelevant.
I immediately committed them to what they believed about God.
I enumerated quite a list of LDS teachings.
Did they believe He has a physical body, that He has a father and
mother, perhaps brothers and sisters?
Is He married? Does
He have more than one wife? How
about two, or ten, or fifty, or 100, or 1,000 or even 10,000?
They agreed that He had more than one, but they had no idea how
many He might have.
They agreed that with one of His wives He had a daughter that we
call Mary. That when she
became a young woman He cohabited with her and they had a child that we
call Jesus!
The book by Milton R. Hunter, Ph.D. The
Gospel Through the Ages (1945) which contains an expectation of
approvals by George F. Richards, then President of the Council
of the Twelve. The book says, “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.” (pg. 15)
This book quotes Lorenzo Snow, the Mormon prophet from 1898 –
1901 said, “As man is, God once was; As God is, Man may become,” on
page 105 –106 of Hunter’s book.
I asked if they (the missionaries) could become gods?
Hopefully, they both nodded, they someday could.
They did believe the couplet that almost every Mormon knows:
“As man is, God once was; as God is, man may become."
Now, I said, I have only one other question?
Is either of those positions taught in the Book
of Mormon?
And I said, “If not, then either the Book
of Mormon is wrong or Mormonism
is wrong?”
I hastened to call attention to the fact that the title page of
the Book of Mormon, the
Testimony of the Three Witnesses; Mosiah 15:1-5, Alma 11:22-29; 38-39;
44, Mormon 9:9-11, Moroni 8:18 and a dozen or more other places taught
my concept of God rather that what Mormonism teaches.
I quickly turned to Alma 34:34-36.
The 36th verse says, “the Lord dwelleth not in
unholy temples, but in the hearts of the righteous doth he dwell…”
Quickly I turned to the Doctrine
and Covenants 130:3 (equally scripture to Mormons) and read “the
idea that the Father and the Son dwell in a man’s heart is an old
sectarian notion, and is false.
But they had to be on their way!
I suggested they return with their Bishop, Mission President, or
perhaps their Prophet! I
haven’t seen them since!
Pray with me for those young men.
They must come to see that there is something wrong with
Mormonism before they will consider the claims of the Gospel.
That’s the reason I say that it is most unlikely that you would
win a real Mormon in one setting. For additional information on witnessing to Mormons; read my Witnessing Effectively to Mormons, book. The cost is $6.00 postpaid. |