Mormons cont.

I’ve had some questions about how my meetings with the Mormons have gone. After the first meeting with the Mormons in February, I received a phone call from someone else saying that because I had moved from where I lived before Christmas, I was in someone else’s zone, and asking if I would be willing to meet with them instead. I set out the same conditions as the previously and after a few questions and about 20 minutes of talking on the phone, they agreed to meet under them. Our first meeting was at a park and when I got there, I found three people and a dog instead of the two I was expecting. I guessed because I was now meeting with two women, they may feel safer having a man with them whom they trusted. They just said they had been talking with him before our meeting and he asked if he could come along. He is a member of their church. A second thought I had was that based on our phone call, the ladies were concerned about not being able to back up their beliefs and having someone else there would help with that.

Before our next meeting, I received a call asking if we could meet in someone else’s home (I’ve not bee receptive to letting them into my home and their rules keep them from inviting anyone to theirs). I agreed to this and we met there. One interesting thing I’ve noticed is that in all of our meetings, the missionaries have not answered any of the hard questions; that’s always been done by the other person in the meeting. I found out at my last meeting with them that this man is actually one of the leaders in their church and what’s more, he’s one of the heads for this district! At this point, I’m left to wonder why we’re meeting in his home.

In our second meeting, I started by asking about something one of the missionaries had stated in our first meeting. She said that one of the reasons she didn’t accept the doctrine of the trinity was that she didn’t understand it. However, near the end of the meeting, she told me she didn’t fully understand the Bible but was learning more about it and gaining a better understanding of it. So I asked why she would accept the Bible although she didn’t understand it but reject the trinity because she didn’t understand it – using the same measure, but coming to a different conclusion. She had no response but the man whose home we were in stumbled to some sort of answer.

She later asked (very sincerely) if I could explain the trinity to her. I told her I couldn’t fully explain the trinity but I have to search the Bible and it tells me that Jesus was killed on the cross because He claimed to be God. In His days on Earth, there were hundreds, if not thousands, of gods being worshipped; and the Jews didn’t try to kill anyone because they claimed to be another god; but they wanted Jesus dead because of his claim to be God. If Jesus made the claim, either it’s true and I better believe Him, or it’s false and I can’t trust anything he says.

I also pointed out that Jehovah (“Father God” as they call Him) clearly says He is one God and there is no other; and we are to worship no other. The interesting thing here is that the Book of Mormon says to worship Jesus. So, they are told to worship both Father God and Jesus, but they are also told that Jesus is not God. So how can they obey Father God in worshipping Him only and obey the Book of Mormon in its command to worship Jesus unless Jesus is God? They had no real response for this.

Virtually all differences between Mormons and Christians hinge on the one question “Was Joseph Smith a true prophet of God?” I took a list of prophecies to our next meeting and asked them to explain the discrepancies to me. After only the third one, they realized they couldn’t explain them and had to admit that some of them appeared to be false. In the end, the missionaries took my list of prophecies so they could check into them and try to find answers for me.

Mormons regularly say to pray and ask Father God if Joseph Smith is a true prophet of God (misinterpreting James one where it says if any of us lacks wisdom we should ask God for it) and his Holy Ghost will confirm it for us by a feeling in our hearts. As we talked, I brought up the historical inaccuracy of the Book of Mormon (Another whole issue I won’t get into here except to say that the book tells of a people living at a certain time and history tells us they were not there and the place claimed was actually inhabited by a completely different people) together with the prophecy issues and some other stuff, and I stated that if I’m looking at something and everything I find goes against it, I’m not going to trust a fast beating heart and some goose bumps (two signs they have claimed); and especially when I’ve already prayed to God and asked him to show me the truth about Joseph Smith and He told me that the man is a complete fraud!

As many of you can well imagine, I’m shocked that these people keep meeting with me. From my perspective, it takes much time out of my schedule and takes much thought and prayer to be prepared; but as long as they want to keep meeting, I will do so. I’m convinced God has called me to a specific ministry of preaching “good news to the poor…and freedom for the captives.” All of Heaven rejoices for the salvation of one individual and I will do all I can for this. Although I can’t explain the reason, I have a feeling about one of the missionaries in particular questioning her beliefs and I’m praying that she will come to a true knowledge of God. As I left the last meeting, I knew there had to be seeds of doubt planted in their minds so I prayed that God will take that seed and make it grow like a weed. I also asked Him for the opportunity to bring these people to Him.