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Mormon
Girls At My Door
Based on a true story about witnessing the Gospel of Christ to those who come to
your home for the purpose of witnessing to you in their religion
It was a warm and sunny afternoon, I was at home washing the dishes. I reached
down to into the clean water in order to grab a sponge full of soap, I then
quickly glance over my right shoulder so I could see the display on my cell
phone which was lying on the sink counter next to me. I did notice one missed
call earlier in the day but decided not to call back right away until the dishes
were done. I then turn back around to focus my attention on the dishes once
again which were in great need of a wash...After a few minutes, the doorbell
unexpectedly rang. I rushed to dried my hands, and proceeded to go down the
stairs, and walked up to the door to see who it was. Peaking through a
window with curiosity, I noticed two happy faces whom I didn't know personally.
They appeared to be young girls, who were dressed in very conservative dresses
which lead me to believe the girls at my door step were not here for a mere
social visit, but rather had something to do with their church or religion.
Continuing to peak through the window, I also observed one of the girls was
looking down to her left side, while the other one was looking straight ahead
but not directly looking at the window so she didn't noticed me looking at her.
I opened the door quickly which startled the girls for a moment. One of young
girls who was facing towards the house began to talk to me in a soft voice...
"Hi, we are from the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints" she said with
a smile on her face. "I was right", thinking to my self, these are Mormons. "Do you know anything about our 'church?' she asked
in a polite tone, continuing to smile at me. "Yes, I do" shaking my head
in response, and smiled back at her. "What do you know" asked the other girl who
continued to look at her side. "Well, I know some things about your founder
Joseph Smith, and differences in such things as the trinity and the Bible" I
replied, this time looking directly at both girls. "You know then we don't believe in Jesus being
thee one and only God but a god who was married to Mary and Martha (the sisters
of Lazarus) and Mary Magdalene nor do we believe just one part of the Bible is absolute, It was
corrupted by man." she said in a cheerfully as though she was proud with
that statement. "But we have other
Scriptures which we believe are the most accurate" replied the other young girl.
"How do you know these Scriptures are the most accurate?" I asked both girls
look at them straight in the eye. I began to notice, one
of the girls who was looking to her side began to looked bothered like I ruffled
her feathers a bit. She took a
deep breath, and looked at me for the first time directly and tried to answer my
question, but it was to no avail. I pressed further for an answer as I continued to ask
both girls how she could trust in
man rather than God for accurate copies of the Bible. At times they looked at each other for answers
because it appeared I was the first to ask such questions and answer them. I
assume this because most in my neighborhood are not very much into the Bible or
church to put it mildly.
Without going into a deep discussion over the history of the Bible, the
manuscripts, and how God preserved His Word through the ages
(The
Bible: The Word of God)
as I felt my time was limited with the girls
and being as young as they were the information would be overwhelming to them.
By the Lord's will, I told them Christ is the only way, the truth and the life
and quoted some Scripture in reference to what I was saying. Then continued to tell them only by God-given grace is
one saved, and the one sacrifice on the cross by Jesus was enough to atone the
sins for His people. We do not become "gods" on another Earth or anything like
that, nor can we use works to merit salvation, I stated boldly and with conviction. My comments were by then really
starting to bother the young Mormon girls by the looks on their faces towards me
and each other. The two girls finally decided to hand me a paper with a toll
free number on it and suggested that I ask for their free video about their
'church.' They repeated a few times to me with a lot of emphasis to order
the video before they thanking me for the conversation and then they finally
left. And so ends what was to be my first encounter with Mormons at my door.
Normally through the years I encounter Jehovah Witnesses. Some from other
religions have left tracks in the mailbox on various occasions. But even though these religions are
different in some aspects, but their arguments in general are the same. You can say
that about any false religion or cult making claims and pointing to everything
else but Christ. But in this message I want to deal with Mormonism in
particular. I believe it's important
for Christians to witness to the lost as it says in the great commission to
preach the Gospel "to all creatures." More than likely most
people in cults have never heard of the true Gospel so it's very important that
they should hear it. Even if they have heard the true Gospel once before, it
wouldn't hurt for them to hear it again when the opportunity arises. I believe it's important for
Christians to know who they witnessing too. Here is a brief overview on the doctrines of
Mormonism...
Introduction to Mormonism
“I
believe that Jesus Christ is the Son of God and the Savior of mankind.” However,
he added; “My church’s (Mormonism) beliefs about Christ may not all be the
same as those of other faiths.”
--Former Presidential
candidate Mitt Romney
Normally all religious have their central figures within a belief system or
religion. For example, Islam has Mohammad as their most important prophet,
Christianity has Christ. In Mormonism, the most important prophet is their founder Joseph Smith.
In 1820, at the age of 15 years old, Joseph Smith claimed to have a personal visit from
God himself who told him about Christ. During this visit, Joseph Smith claimed
God told him all Christian Churches were an abomination. His visions in
general were contrary to Christianity. Joseph Smith held to these visions as the
purest ( the most correct) form of truth, above all religions. Joseph Smith was murdered in 1844, Brigham Young took over the
religion and moved it to Utah which has been the heart of Mormonism ever since.
In Utah, temples were built which have a different
purpose other than the traditional meeting place to worship. These temples were constructed in
order to perform secret occult rituals for the living and the dead because
Mormons think they must perform them to have eternal life. It's part of their
works for salvation. Now let's take a look at some of the basic beliefs in
Mormonism.
The Various Cannon of Scripture
In Mormonism, there are more than one book that is deemed as Scriptures (God's
Word), and they are...
1) The Bible, the KJV in particular (contains missing parts errors, and not
translated correctly so states Mormon scholars)
2) The Book of Mormon (the most accurate and complete book of God according to
Mormon scholars)
3) The Doctrine and Covenants
4) The Pearl of Great Price
The Book of Mormon which is widely known was claimed by Joseph Smith to be
written on golden plates in an language that was unknown to man called reformed
Egyptian. Mormons claim this book was written by ancient prophets on gold plates
which were later sent to Joseph Smith who had the gift to translate them into
English. The Book of Mormon had about 4,000 errors in it that alarmed even
Mormons themselves. So the most correct book about God according to Mormons
still had to be refined. For example, "mother of God" in the original 1830
version was changed to the "mother of the son of God". Also "King Benjamin"
becomes "King Mosiah" (B of M, Ether 4:1). There was also many grammatical
errors which were in need of correction if this book was to be taken seriously.
So stated Mormon scholars...The Trinity Mormonism teaches is polytheism.
Joseph Smith stated he was preaching about "the plurality of Gods" He viewed the
trinity not as One God, but Three distinct Gods. Mormon Apostle McConkie spoke
of the trinity as "Plurality of Gods: Three separate personages: Father, Son,
and Holy Ghost."
When is comes to viewing who God is, Mormons teaches that God who is ruling
Earth was nothing more than a man on another planet, who through self effort and
the help of his own father-god, was appointed by a counsel of other gods in the
heavens to his high position as the god of the Earth. On salvation, Mormon rests
on the false hope of their good deeds, and holy living through the atonement of
Christ, with their numerous goddess wives, to populate their own planets.
Christ Mormonism does in fact believe in the divinity of Christ but in a
way that is the opposite of what the Scriptures teach on the subject...In short,
Mormon doctrine claims Jesus, Lucifer, Demons, and all of mankind are actually
all spirit brothers and sisters, born in the spirit world as spirit babies to
their man-god Heavenly Father and his goddess wives.
Temple Rituals
A typical temple ceremony would take place as follows: "The ritual began in a
small cubicle where we had to strip completely. We then put on 'the shield,' a
poncho with a hole for the head, but open on the sides (similar to a hospital
gown). We went through a series of 'washings and anointings,' as various parts
of our bodies were touched by elderly temple workers who mumbled appropriate
incantations over them. Our Mormon underwear, 'the garments,' are said to have
powers to protect us from 'the evil one.' It had occult markings, which were so
'sacred' that we were instructed to burn them when the garments wore out. The
endowment ceremony mocked all doctrines held to by Biblical Christianity, and
Christian pastors were portrayed as servants of Satan. We had to swear many
blood oaths, promising we would forfeit our lives if we weren't faithful, or if
we revealed any of the secrets revealed to us in the temple ceremonies. We were
made to pretend by grotesque gestures to cut our throats, chests, and abdomens,
indicating how we would lose our lives. We were never told who would kill us!
The inference was, and history testifies to, that it would be the Mormon
priesthood." (Testimony of a former Mormon.) (Note: The blood oaths and
portrayal of Christian pastors were removed in April of 1990, despite the fact
that the ordinance was purported to have been given originally by a revelation
and was never to be changed.)
What Ever Happened to the Mormon Girls?
Some years later on
one Saturday afternoon, I was doing a little food shopping, and unexpectedly one of the
Mormon girls happened to be there by the grace of God. As I glanced
at her, she looked at me with a smiled indicating she remembered who
I was. She then proceed to approach me. "Hey, your the man who was witnessing to us as we were
trying to witness to you. Do you remember me and my friend?" I shook
my head, "yes" and asked how her spiritual life was doing. "My heart was pricked
that day when we talked at your door, but my friend's was harden for a long time and
sadly it still is.
For many months I searched the Scriptures and remembered what you said. I
realized I had no solid ground, if the text had errors in it, how could I know
for certain who God is and who God is not or what God actually said. I replied to her, "Yes, this is true,
tell me what else was going on with your life."
She continued,
"Well, the Lord revealed the true nature of my heart, works in any form wouldn't
save me or make me become a god on another earth nor any religious traditions.
Jesus is not just a Saviour so we can escape the punishment of hell and live as
we please like the world does, but He is Lord who shows unconditional love when
He saves His people. I remember reading John the Baptist saying, "flee from the
wrath to come" I was at God's mercy, my search was over, God by His will saved a
poor sinner like me." I shook my head and said, "Praise the Lord". "How
long has it been since the Lord saved you?" I asked with a great deal of
curiosity. "Three in a half years" She replied with a smile. Then I asked her,
"Are you assembling with local believers anywhere?" "Yes, I am....I found a
small Baptist assembly, about 20 miles where I live." She continued to
describe the type of services they had, and songs they sung. It appeared it
wasn't a liberal Baptist or just a conservative assembly, but a Christian one.
Before we departed
ways, I prayed with her asking the Lord to strengthen her in the faith which was
under attack by her Mormon family, and friends. Also the salvation of her former
friend and the rest of her family. I never seen her after that day,
and often times thought about how she was doing in the Lord.
Christ is Salvation From the Stains of Sin
Arthur Pink a well know writer and author of a
magazine of many topics from the bible called; "Studies From The Scriptures"
puts salvation this way; "The heart of fallen man is thoroughly depraved: its thoughts and imaginations
being only evil continually (Genesis 6:5). It is full of corrupt desires and
affections, which exert themselves and influence man in all he does. Now the
Gospel comes into direct opposition with these selfish lusts and corrupt
affections, both in the root and in the fruit of them (Titus 2:11,12). There is
no greater duty that the Gospel urges upon our souls than the mortifying and
destroying of them, and this indispensably, if we intend to be made partakers of
its promises (Romans 8:13; Colossians 3:5-8). Hence, the first real work of
faith is to cleanse the soul from these pollutions, and therefore we read,
"They that are Christ’s have crucified the flesh with the affections and lusts"
(Galatians 5:24). Arthur Pink is indeed right concerning salvation and the
status of man's heart, thanks to the Lord.
The
Scriptures Themselves Make it Clear...
"by grace are ye saved through faith; and that not of yourselves: it is the gift
of God: not of works, lest any man should boast" (Ephesians 2:8-9)
"Not by works of righteousness which we have done, but according to his mercy he
saved us" (Titus 3:5)
Christians from all over the world should pray for these two Mormon girls who
came to my door, for they truly need the Lord who rules over all.
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