Last night I had three visitors come to my door. I immediately knew who they were and saw it as an opportunity for the gospel. They all had on white shirts, dark pants, and black name badge. You have probably figured it out – they were Mormons.
I learned several things through this encounter and thought I would share it with you. I tried to be as nice as possible and as straightforward as I could as well. I attempted to speak the truth in love.
One of the first things I learned is that I am not as smart as I think I am. These guys were considerably younger than me and were ready for the challenge. They were well prepared, articulate, knew some of my arguments before I had even voiced them, and were very intelligent.
I am fairly well versed in the false teaching of Mormonism, but I am not as well schooled as they were. These young guys are basically in school everyday of the week learning a tried and true program of how to present and defend Mormonism. There is a lesson to learn from that because we are commanded in scripture to “be prepared to give a defense to anyone who asks”.
I also admire their commitment to the spreading of their faith. If more of us true Christians were as committed to sharing the true gospel more souls might be saved.
Here is how the conversation went. I let them give me their opening statement and I could tell that it was a presentation that they had memorized filled with the typical Mormon diatribe, “We are the one true church coming to share the gospel…”
I complimented their efforts and decided I better come clean right from the start so they would know my position. So, as politely as possible, I told them that I believe that Mormonism is a false religion and that Joseph Smith is a false prophet and that they were deceived and their souls were in jeopardy. I thought this could be the end of the visit, but it was not. They took it as a challenge and the debate ensued.(which I kind of enjoy).
After some short exchanges they surprisingly began to attack the doctrine of the Trinity. I wasn’t prepared for that but decided to pursue it. If they deny the Biblical teaching of the Trinity they have denied the essence of who God is.
We spent the majority of the time discussing the doctrine of the Trinity from the Bible. The Mormon position is that there are three entities – Father, Son, Spirit. And these three entities have one purpose. Of course, Christianity teaches that there are three distinct personalities but One in person, equality and essence. There is only One God.
This seemed to be fairly effective because I pointed out to them that they basically believed in three different gods. They never denied this! I also knew of the Mormon teaching that says, “As man is God once was, as God is man may become.” This too they never denied. I pointed out to them that they not only believed in three gods, they believed that they would become another god. This is idolatry.
They did have a few counter-arguments, some I probably didn’t respond to as well as I could have. They took me to several passages that clearly show the distinctions between Father and Son as proof of their position. I tried to explain that I don’t have any problem with the distinction passages. There is a distinction, but they are still One. I don’t think I did as good as I could have at this point.
What I did do was take them to the Old Testament. It is filled with proclamations, teachings, warnings and judgments that there is only ONE God! They believe in three gods. I think I could see that this was something they didn’t have an answer for.
I could tell that they weren’t going to give in, and they knew that I was not either. So, I made my final appeal. I told them that I believed that they were being blinded by the devil, could not see the truth of the gospel, were believing a lie and their soul was at stake.
Then I told them this, “This is my block and I would appreciate it if you wouldn’t go to anymore houses or come back to this neighborhood.” I don’t want them telling my neighbors a false gospel. They have the freedom in our country to go wherever they want but I can also ask them not to come to mine. They seemed to respect that. Who knows if they will. I guess I need to be prepared for their return to my neighborhood. The only thing I can think that I would need to do is go right behind them to every house they do and tell the people they have just talked to the truth.
I am sure that I made several mistakes. One is that I think for some of the moments in our discussion that I overestimated the power of argumentation instead of the fact that this was a spiritual battle. Thankfully, Michelle saw me grab my Bible and got together with my girls to pray for me while I was talking with these guys. I need to know how to defend my faith, but I can’t rely on that, I must rely on the Holy Spirit to break down the spiritual stronghold that had a grip on these young men.
When they left I was saddened. I realized that they were deep in the grip of a Satanic cult and it would be really difficult, but not impossible, for them to break away from Mormonism.
I learned several things through this encounter and thought I would share it with you. I tried to be as nice as possible and as straightforward as I could as well. I attempted to speak the truth in love.
One of the first things I learned is that I am not as smart as I think I am. These guys were considerably younger than me and were ready for the challenge. They were well prepared, articulate, knew some of my arguments before I had even voiced them, and were very intelligent.
I am fairly well versed in the false teaching of Mormonism, but I am not as well schooled as they were. These young guys are basically in school everyday of the week learning a tried and true program of how to present and defend Mormonism. There is a lesson to learn from that because we are commanded in scripture to “be prepared to give a defense to anyone who asks”.
I also admire their commitment to the spreading of their faith. If more of us true Christians were as committed to sharing the true gospel more souls might be saved.
Here is how the conversation went. I let them give me their opening statement and I could tell that it was a presentation that they had memorized filled with the typical Mormon diatribe, “We are the one true church coming to share the gospel…”
I complimented their efforts and decided I better come clean right from the start so they would know my position. So, as politely as possible, I told them that I believe that Mormonism is a false religion and that Joseph Smith is a false prophet and that they were deceived and their souls were in jeopardy. I thought this could be the end of the visit, but it was not. They took it as a challenge and the debate ensued.(which I kind of enjoy).
After some short exchanges they surprisingly began to attack the doctrine of the Trinity. I wasn’t prepared for that but decided to pursue it. If they deny the Biblical teaching of the Trinity they have denied the essence of who God is.
We spent the majority of the time discussing the doctrine of the Trinity from the Bible. The Mormon position is that there are three entities – Father, Son, Spirit. And these three entities have one purpose. Of course, Christianity teaches that there are three distinct personalities but One in person, equality and essence. There is only One God.
This seemed to be fairly effective because I pointed out to them that they basically believed in three different gods. They never denied this! I also knew of the Mormon teaching that says, “As man is God once was, as God is man may become.” This too they never denied. I pointed out to them that they not only believed in three gods, they believed that they would become another god. This is idolatry.
They did have a few counter-arguments, some I probably didn’t respond to as well as I could have. They took me to several passages that clearly show the distinctions between Father and Son as proof of their position. I tried to explain that I don’t have any problem with the distinction passages. There is a distinction, but they are still One. I don’t think I did as good as I could have at this point.
What I did do was take them to the Old Testament. It is filled with proclamations, teachings, warnings and judgments that there is only ONE God! They believe in three gods. I think I could see that this was something they didn’t have an answer for.
I could tell that they weren’t going to give in, and they knew that I was not either. So, I made my final appeal. I told them that I believed that they were being blinded by the devil, could not see the truth of the gospel, were believing a lie and their soul was at stake.
Then I told them this, “This is my block and I would appreciate it if you wouldn’t go to anymore houses or come back to this neighborhood.” I don’t want them telling my neighbors a false gospel. They have the freedom in our country to go wherever they want but I can also ask them not to come to mine. They seemed to respect that. Who knows if they will. I guess I need to be prepared for their return to my neighborhood. The only thing I can think that I would need to do is go right behind them to every house they do and tell the people they have just talked to the truth.
I am sure that I made several mistakes. One is that I think for some of the moments in our discussion that I overestimated the power of argumentation instead of the fact that this was a spiritual battle. Thankfully, Michelle saw me grab my Bible and got together with my girls to pray for me while I was talking with these guys. I need to know how to defend my faith, but I can’t rely on that, I must rely on the Holy Spirit to break down the spiritual stronghold that had a grip on these young men.
When they left I was saddened. I realized that they were deep in the grip of a Satanic cult and it would be really difficult, but not impossible, for them to break away from Mormonism.
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