Mormon Mayhem

A few weeks ago I was with a group from church on a service project in our community doing some landscaping for a local half-way house ministry. Two Mormons were riding by on their bicycles and stopped and asked if they could help. We said sure and as I worked alongside them I struck up a conversation.

Now, we have a small group from church that meets every other Sunday night and we're studying different religions. They asked me to lead a session on Mormonism, and I agreed. I ended up asking these two Mormons if they would come and tell our group about their faith. So they came last night and shared with our group.

I spent hours preparing because I wanted to confront these gentlemen with some of the un-Biblical and downright dangerous beliefs that their church professes. Beliefs like Jesus' blood doesn't cover all sins; God was once a man who worked out his own salvation; all churches other than the Mormon church are an abomination to God and only by belonging to the Mormon church can you be saved; the Fall (Garden of Eden) and sin itself were intended by God and are actually good because they allow us to experience suffering through which we can become gods. Hmmm, eating the apple was a good thing because we can become like God. Now that sounds an awful lot like Satan's lie in Genesis 3:4-5.

Mormonism bothers me more than any other religion/cult, because they profess belief in Jesus Christ and the one true God, but their teachings about Jesus/God are completely un-Biblical. Hence, one must conclude this is a false Jesus they proclaim. The kind of false-Jesus teaching Paul rebukes the Corinthian church for putting up with in 2 Corinthians 11 and warns the Galatian church about in Galatians 1.

So, they presented their basic beliefs for about a half hour and our group spent the next two hours debating with them. I was so proud of how our group handled themselves. Almost every single person in the group challenged these two young gentlemen's beliefs with complete gentleness and love. It was an awesome experience and really helped sharpen me to confront un-Biblical teaching in the future. I hope we planted some seeds of God's holy truth in these gentlemen. They definitely planted seeds in me. Seeds of desperation and urgency for all people to know God's holy truth, his one and only true Word, the Bible, and the complete utter freedom of abiding in Jesus Christ.

Dear God, burn away the dross from the Mormon Church and let them discover your true Son. Let them experience the freedom of Christ and forsake their falsity. Your grace is enough for us.

APK