Is God The Only True God? Responding to Mormonism
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Join us for the newest episode of Apologia Radio in which we continue our discussion about recent Mormon convert and self-professed "Ex-Pastor and Ex-Evangelical", David Alexander. We continue our discussion and introduction of this man now turning to his attempt to defend polytheism and exaltation (the idea that men can become gods).
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- When the scribes and Pharisees asked our Lord about the greatest commandment, He replied, You shall love the
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- Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your mind, and with all your strength.
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- So, why do we hear some of today's most prominent pastors saying things like this? It had everything to do with how we talk about the
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- Bible. And specifically, or along with that, what we point to as the foundation of faith.
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- Which for most Christians, unfortunately, is the Bible. We need to do better.
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- We need to love God with all our hearts, and stand unashamedly on the rock of His Word. We need to love the
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- Lord with all of our souls, and respond to the worldview issues of our day with the wisdom and discernment that comes only from Him.
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- We need to love the Lord with our minds, and understand the calling of God's people in every area of life in God's world.
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- We need to love the Lord our God with all our strength, and face the work of building a life -giving, God -honoring culture.
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- Join us for 10 days at the Runner Academy for Cultural Leadership, as we consider how the gospel influences all of life and culture, and the role that we have to play in applying foundational
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- Christian thinking to every area of life. Non -rocker boaters must stop.
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- I don't want to rock the boat. I want to sink it! Are you going to bark all day, little doggie?
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- Or are you going to bite? Delusional. Delusional is okay in your worldview.
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- I'm an animal. You don't chastise chickens for being delusional. You don't chastise pigs for being delusional. So you calling me delusional using your worldview is perfectly okay.
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- It doesn't really hurt. Desperate times call for faithful men and not for careful men.
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- The careful men come later and write the biographies of the faithful men, lauding them for their courage.
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- Go into all the world and make disciples. Not go into the world and make buddies. Not to make brosives. Right. Don't go into the world and make homies.
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- Right. Disciples. I got a bit of a jiggle neck. That's a joke,
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- Pastor. When we have the real message of truth, we cannot let somebody say they're speaking truth when they're not.
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- An animal is what you are. To you, it was shown that you might know that the
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- Lord is God. There is no other besides Him.
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- Know therefore today and lay it to your heart that the Lord is God in heaven above and on the earth beneath.
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- There is no other. What's up, everybody? Welcome back to another episode of Apologia Radio.
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- This is the gospel heard around the world. I'm Jeff the Calm of the Ninja. That's Zachary Conover right there.
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- So this is a continuation. Unfortunately, we're supposed to have Pastor James White, Dr. James White on with us today.
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- Brother had a bad protein shake. But apparently he doesn't understand the general rule that all of us do, and that's that you don't eat food products from Circle K.
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- General principles, Pastor James, general principles. He's great at scholarship. He's great at theology, great at teaching, the greatest.
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- But he doesn't know where he's supposed to eat. Yeah, it's dicey. Taco time and quesadillas.
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- And apparently now we learned he drinks protein shakes from Circle K. It's just, you don't do it.
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- You just don't do it. We all know this. You don't do it. And so be in prayer for Pastor James. He was supposed to be on with us today, join us for this discussion.
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- Not feeling so well, so be in prayer for him. We love him. So we're having a discussion, a very important one, about a recent convert to Mormonism, to the
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- Church of Jesus Christ of Latter -day Saints. And his name is David Alexander. Fairly recently he converted to, within the last year, to Mormonism.
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- He claims to be an ex -evangelical and an ex -pastor.
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- And so he is kind of all the rage right now and all the Mormon message boards and everything else.
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- Are we talking reform pastor as well? Or do we know? I don't think he claims that. I don't quite know.
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- He doesn't seem to understand the theology he professes to come from. There's some questions in terms of, you know, everyone wants to know.
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- I think Mormons would like to know too. You were an ex -evangelical, you were an ex -pastor, where? Where were you a pastor?
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- What do you mean you were an ex -evangelical? Like, are we talking about like a non -Christian cult version of Christianity?
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- You know, something like 12 tribes or something like that? I'd be curious. I'm curious and we're curious and we're looking into it.
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- And so we'll be getting into that in short order. Not in this episode.
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- So anyway, if you missed last week's episode, we started to introduce you to David Alexander to get to know him and some of the things that he claims.
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- And we did that by way of getting into a video. He was on with another
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- Latter -day Saint where they tried to engage with a very short video of us out doing evangelism outside the
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- Mormon temple on Mesa, Arizona. Some young Mormon missionaries walk up. And I guess the video is like maybe a minute, minute and a half long.
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- And I just asked him a question. Do you believe you're going to become a God one day? And so a very short one. But they started to engage with that video.
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- And David Alexander tries to provide an apologetic to defend the idea that you can become
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- God one day, a God one day, a God of your own planet. If you guys are new to this discussion, you should know that Mormonism is a non -Christian cult.
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- It is a counterfeit Christian cult. It rose up in the 19th century under the teachings of a man named
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- Joseph Smith, Jr. And Joseph Smith, Jr. claimed to receive the location of golden plates, another testament of Jesus Christ.
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- He translated the Book of Mormon from Reformed Egyptian hieroglyphics. As time went on, that story added to the story were first vision accounts that there was a number of them.
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- They're different in terms of purpose and who was there and everything else. Hard to reconcile those.
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- But that started to happen as well. Joseph Smith was... Mormonism was birthed out of the mind of Joseph Smith, who was surrounded by a monotheistic
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- Christian culture in New England. And Joseph Smith, you can see in the
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- Book of Mormon itself, is very confused about the Trinity. But you see the Book of Mormon itself preaching monotheism, because that's the culture that was surrounding him at the time.
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- And then you can see Joseph Smith's beliefs progressively move towards polytheism and the idea of exaltation, that you become a god or goddess of your own planet one day.
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- And so that's where Mormonism begins. And you start to see transformation really throughout the first hundred years of Mormonism.
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- Lots of false prophecy. Lots of challenges against the state and the federal government with regards to polygamy.
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- And, of course, many of their teachings since its inception have undergone a lot of transformation.
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- Whether it's blacks being cursed by God, not being able to hold the priesthood, to today, something very different happening in Salt Lake.
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- And I do agree with one of the things that Pastor James has been saying recently, is that he never would have thought that Mormonism would be one of the first major victims of all the ideologies of today, whether it's the alphabet crowd or transgenderism.
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- And you see that happening in Salt Lake proper today. And what I mean by Salt Lake proper, you'll hear about in a minute.
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- Anyways, so David Alexander has converted to Mormonism, and he has a channel now where he is trying to provide an apologetic for Mormon theology, coming from someone who claims to know the
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- Bible really, really well. These are his own claims. And so we wanted to provide an engagement with his attempt to demonstrate, to wave a hand or explain away passages like Isaiah 43 .10.
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- There's a number of passages that we can go to throughout the Bible from beginning to end that teach without question that there is only one true and living
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- God. Psalm 90 verse 2, From eternity into eternity you are God. Mormonism denies that.
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- God is God alone in the heavens above and on the earth below. Mormonism denies that. But he tries to provide an apologetic against Isaiah 43 .10.
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- Before me there was no God formed, neither shall there be after me. And we want to engage with some of that.
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- There's much that we can do. He's been putting out videos like flowers out of a hat, and so there's a lot we could do.
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- But I wanted to just do a little bit more, and you haven't heard this yet. Nope, I'm gonna get it live. You're gonna get it live.
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- We'll do it live. This is just by way of helping us to understand how
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- David Alexander feels about God, God being worshipped, eternity with God, the worship of God.
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- So one of his videos is titled, Are We Gonna Be Gods and Rule Our Own Planets?
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- This is about 17 minutes in. And I just, before we get into his attempt to explain away
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- Isaiah 43 .10, we're gonna engage with that, I wanted to let you hear the man for himself talk about this.
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- Here we go. What it is, it's bizarre. It's absolutely bizarre. And the most bizarre thing about it is the vision of God that it portrays, the character of God that's portrayed by such a vision of the end purpose of human existence.
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- This idea that he created billions of human beings just so he could have unceasing worship, you know, that basically it's a vision of God where he's surrounded by, you know, billions of these human beings that he created, and the whole purpose he created them for was that they could come back to heaven and they could all gather around him and just be, just giving him glory and worship for all eternity.
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- And he's up there, yes, this is how it should be, finally. This is what
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- I've ordained everything for, all the struggles of human beings throughout the millennia, and, you know, the death of my son
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- Jesus and everything that human beings have been through and those that have received salvation, and now they're here, and this is what
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- I've always wanted, is to have these poor redeemed creatures just giving me their full attention and just never stopping, just praising me and worshiping me and giving me their full attention for all eternity.
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- Yes, this is how it should be. Oh, oh, this is so wonderful. I'm just drinking this up.
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- It's just, oh, this is how it should be. That is sick, man, that is so sick.
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- Do you know, this is a rock star vision of God. You know where rock stars get their values?
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- You know who wants to be worshipped, wants to be the center of attention for all eternity, and wants human beings to have nothing else to do except to worship him and give him glory for all eternity?
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- You know who really wants it that way? I'll tell you who wants it that way.
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- Satan wants it that way. And there you go. You know,
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- I think that he's vocalizing something that a lot of Mormons have struggled with. They have an inability to understand the creator -creature distinction in such a way as to see that God is not like them.
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- Right. And I think if you, you know, I mean, you can go all throughout
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- Scripture, but if you look at a passage in the Psalter, Psalm 50, these things you have done and I have been silent, you thought that I was one like yourself, but now
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- I rebuke you and lay the charge before you. So God rebukes a creature that would see himself on an equal footing in terms of him being glorified.
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- And I think this is the fundamental distinction between the religion of God, which we would say is biblical
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- Christianity and every other man -made religion, is that Christianity is first and foremost
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- God -centered by definition. And God, by nature of who he is, by nature of the fact that he defies comprehension, his being is limitless.
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- He has characteristics that our language fails to articulate. Right. He escapes human capacity of us to fully deal with.
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- Right. There, of course, are limitations to even the words that we can use to describe him.
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- And that, upon that basis, makes him the object of worship, is that he's not like us.
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- He's holy. He's set apart. And I think to the Mormon mind, conceiving of any being outside of a human is just puzzling to them because their theology is so man -centered.
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- I mean, Scripture is replete with this idea that all of humanity exists for the praise of God's glorious grace,
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- Ephesians chapter 1. This is what humanity will be doing.
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- Obviously, there's other elements of our post -heaven and earth consummation work and vocation, right?
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- We believe that these things will follow us in some measure into the eternal state in which we're going to...
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- It's this world... Heavenized. Yeah, heavenized. But this aspect of man, the creature, failing to see that God is not like him is the fundamental problem.
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- Yeah, and of course it makes sense, though. You can draw the line between David Alexander's new conception of God as God as a man.
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- And what would it be like if I just wanted to have people worship me for all eternity? How crazy, how prideful would that be?
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- How gross would that be? How sick would that be? But in God's case, it's true. Yeah, but in God's case, it's true. And yeah,
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- Satan did want worship for himself and all the glory because that's, of course, what he's envious in God.
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- He wants to be worshiped. He wants to be like God. Of course, of course, of course. But the problem is that Satan's a creature and doesn't deserve it.
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- And that's what makes it so wrong is him wanting to be the God of this world, him wanting that kind of glory.
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- He doesn't deserve it, and neither do I. No creature deserves it. God's not being prideful when he demands all worship.
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- He's being God. He's being God because it's only right to do. That's an ought. If he's worthy, truly worthy of eternal worship, then we ought to do that.
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- It's how things ought to be. And you made a good point in terms of us as creatures not being able to fully comprehend
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- God. Are there things we can apprehend about God? Yes, absolutely. But can we fully comprehend him?
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- No, we cannot because we're creatures. Try to explain calculus to a room full of cockroaches.
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- At a certain point, the creatureliness breaks down. It doesn't work. Even, and this is a good, you know, there's a good way it's been described before is
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- God is so incomprehensible to us as creatures that even when he speaks to us, he has to condescend and speak to us in baby talk because we're just creatures, and we're limited in our capacities.
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- He's not like us. But for the God of David, Alexander, now, and Mormons around the world, they have a
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- God who was once a man like them. He went through the same process that they've gone through and the process of exaltation, and so when he's portraying
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- God, he's portraying God as a sick guy that just wants worship for all eternity. The answer is he actually deserves it.
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- Let me just do this real fast. I got the team telling me unplug this and replug it in. Okay, there you go.
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- Is that better, guys? Let's see here. Oh, there you go.
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- Hopefully that worked out. All right, so I just wanted to give you a little taste there of how
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- David Alexander speaks about the
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- God of the Bible, the God of historic Christianity in terms of being worthy of our worship, creating us for worship.
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- Think about this in terms of purpose. If you are an artist or a creator of something and you create something for a purpose, when it's accomplishing that purpose, it is doing what it was made to do.
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- That's what it was made for. And if God makes image bearers of God, creatures, to glorify him and to worship him and to honor him and delight in him, when they are doing that, they're fulfilling their actual purpose, what they were made for.
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- I would argue the other way. Actually, when his creature is determined to be gods in their own minds, a lot of themselves, when they desire worship as the creature, the creation is breaking down.
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- It's doing what it wasn't created to do. So I would argue the other way, actually, is that what David Alexander is hoping for in eternity now is broken.
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- It's not the way creation is supposed to go. It's not the way the created order is. And it's not the purpose of image bearers of God.
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- You and I were made for a purpose. And what David Alexander is doing is turning that purpose on its head, saying, rather than worshiping
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- God for all eternity and delighting in him, in his presence, his fullness of joy, in his right hand, our pleasures forever, what we should actually seek to do is become gods like him and be worshipped ourselves.
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- Never forget that the Latter -day Saint believes that exaltation, the true highest form of humanity and the most blessed estate, is to actually receive worship, to be worshipped as a god and goddess one day.
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- That is the goal of Mormonism. It is one of, I'll just speak very bluntly here, it's one of the most theologically perverse things imaginable.
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- To desire as a creature to be worshipped yourself. That is sick.
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- That is sick. I think one more thing I would add to that just briefly is if you object to the idea of God being for his own glory, everything that he does is to glorify himself and to glorify his name.
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- If you object to that idea, here is implicitly what you're saying. By definition, if God is
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- God, there is nothing more exalted or glorified than his own being.
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- Who he is. And if you're saying that God is not God -centered, if he's not for his glory as the greatest good that he acts, then you're saying that there is something outside of him to which he is bound.
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- There's something higher than him now to which he must conform and that is not his ultimate purpose, which is to bring glory to himself.
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- And so I think it translates to the bottom line and that is that with Mormonism, what you have is an attempt to take
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- God off of his throne and to elevate man to the same level. That's right. Because the human mind cannot conceive, or at least the
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- Mormon mind, in terms of God's God -centered purpose and the fact that the end of all creation in human history is to glorify him.
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- It's a God -centered reality. It's the biblical worldview. Yeah, and those scenes taking place in the book of Revelation, the worship taking place before the
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- Father and the Son, it seems like a good place to be. It's highlighted in Revelation as a very good scene.
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- Right. God receiving that worship and being given glory and praise. Very different worldview, very different mindset, very different view of worship than Scripture.
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- And David Alexander has adopted Joseph Smith's perspective and, of course, the Mormon prophets and apostles' perspective.
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- One more thing here, just in terms of making sure you understand a little bit more about this gentleman. This is one of the popular videos.
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- I believe it's on his channel. Converts Testimony to Latter -day Saint Conference of Future Missionaries.
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- Did I get the right one? Yeah. Okay, here we go. Make sure... Yeah, that's the right one. Yeah. Yeah, okay.
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- Here we go. So this is some of his comments in a Mormon ward. Because I don't know how much all of you know about Evangelical Christianity, and there's wonderful, sincere people there for sure, and I was one of them.
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- But generally, the belief is this thing called scriptura sola, which is the
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- Bible only, is the rule of faith and practice. And scriptura sola doesn't work, okay?
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- When Joseph Smith was a frustrated young man at the age of 14, because there was all this religious confusion and he didn't know what to believe or who to follow, there were approximately 200 different Christian groups and denominations on the face of the earth.
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- And the last time I checked a couple months ago at the Gordon Conwell Theological Institute Study for World Christianity, the latest number is 46 ,000.
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- Okay. And all of that happens because someone has a
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- Bible and they're part of a particular group, say the Free Will Baptists, and they see something in the scriptures that's different from what their group teaches.
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- And so they split off and they start the Free Will Spirit -filled Baptists or the
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- Free Will Pre -Tribulation Spirit -filled Baptists or the Free Will Mid -Trib
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- Free Will Baptists. You get the picture. It's like... And it isn't just a...
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- This isn't just a mental exercise you're talking about. You come to believe in Jesus.
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- You want to love one another. You want to support one another. You want to be one. You want to know what to believe and how then you should live.
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- And how would you know that? How would you know what to believe and how then shall you live?
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- Only on the basis of the objective revelation of God in history. By the way, I just want to point out, and I think most people have caught it, nobody who was an ex -evangelical that understood the doctrine of Sola Scriptura would refer to Sola Scriptura as Scripture is
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- Sola. So that's one of the things that, of course, many of us are looking a little squinty -eyed going,
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- Hmm. Ex -evangelical. Ex -pastor. Claims to know all these things.
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- Claims to come out of this context. And he refers to Sola Scriptura as Scripture is
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- Sola. Again, nobody who understood that doctrine, believed that doctrine, would ever refer to it as Scripture is
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- Sola. So that's curious. But it's interesting because he doesn't understand that Answer the fool according to his folly.
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- This sword cuts both ways, David Alexander. And when you refer, by the way, it's absolute fiction.
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- It is a fiction. Demonstrable fiction. What he said there in terms of when Joseph Smith was around, there's about 200
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- Christian denominations. Last time I checked, there's over 40 ,000 Christian denominations. Absolute fiction.
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- It's not true. Even when he refers to it, it's like you got these Baptists over here, and then these
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- Baptists over here, and then these Baptists over here. Yeah, what are they, David? Baptists.
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- They're Baptists. Who have the same convictions about the nature of God.
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- The Trinity. Jesus Christ. His perfect work on the cross. Salvation by grace alone through faith alone.
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- A view of the authority and sufficiency of Scripture. The virgin birth. All of those things that are fundamentally definitional to Biblical Christianity.
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- All of the essential unity of Christendom. And historic Christian orthodoxy. And so this idea of like there was 200,
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- I mean, did you just pull that number out of a hat? 200 Christian denominations in Joseph Smith's day versus now 40 some odd thousand today.
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- But it's interesting because Mormons will oftentimes use as a,
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- I call it, I call it marketing. You know, we are the restored church, and we've got all this unity as the one true church on earth and all the rest.
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- It's very interesting because Mormons will often try to go to things like, well, you've got all these
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- Christian denominations, they disagree with each other. Yeah, we have fundamental unity, many of us, over all the essentials of the faith.
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- And Christian orthodoxy always has throughout Christian history in terms of who Jesus is, the atonement, what
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- Jesus came for, to die for sinners, rise again from the dead, the authority of God's word, trinity, all those things.
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- But it's interesting because Mormons sometimes fail to recognize that just in the very short time period that has elapsed since Joseph Smith came in with this false gospel and false teaching, you have hundreds of different sects of Mormonism.
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- You've got, of course, Salt Lake Proper, which most people recognize today as the large organization in Salt Lake and all the rest.
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- But you also have many other different branches of the Latter -day Saints.
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- You've got the reorganized Church of Jesus Christ of Latter -day Saints. You've got Church of Christ Temple Lot. You've got
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- Community of Christ. You've got Church of the Potter Christ, Church of the Christian Brotherhood, Church of Christ at Haley's Bluff, Church of Christ with Elijah Message, Church of Christ Restored, Church of Christ Hancock, Church of Christ Leighton Floyd.
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- You've got Church of Christ, well, Restored there. And we can go on.
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- There's a number of little denominations within the old Church of Jesus Christ of Latter -day Saints aren't there.
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- And it's interesting because here's what's interesting about that. The reason there are so many different versions of Mormonism today is because many people who are
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- Latter -day Saints and want to be consistent and faithful and zealous Latter -day Saints will hear the modern prophets and apostles speaking at Salt Lake and then they'll read
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- Joseph. And then they'll read Brigham. And then they'll read Orson Pratt.
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- Or they'll pick up Mormon Doctrine by Bruce R. McConkie and they'll say, goodness, this is fairly recent in history and he's saying some things here that, you know, there's some strong stuff here that doesn't sound like what
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- I'm getting out of Salt Lake proper today. And you've got, I mean, just think about even that recent documentary that was, not documentary, the film, the docu -series.
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- Is that how you refer to it? Docu -series? Under the Banner of Heaven? Under the Banner of Heaven? Close enough.
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- It was, there's documentaries on it. There's a book on it. But what's the story there in terms of the history there in Utah is that you have people that actually start reading the original prophets and apostles and they go, oh, you got this
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- Doctrine of Blood Atonement? You got this Doctrine of Polygamy? I mean, here I'm reading Brigham Young, prophet of the
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- Church of Jesus Christ of Latter -day Saints, saying that if any of you continue to deny polygamy, I promise you'll be damned.
- 29:56
- Yeah, is that still true? Yeah, or is it still true? Or Brigham Young, prophet of Mormonism says, the only men who become gods or even the sons of God are those who enter into polygamy.
- 30:09
- And so faithful Mormons today read their own prophets saying, I can't get exalted,
- 30:15
- I can't become exalted unless I engage in polygamy. And so you've got all these Mormon sects that start based upon the fact that they're saying, we're just trying to be
- 30:26
- OG. We're just trying to be... Trying to get back to the purest form of this. The purest form of this.
- 30:31
- And so you, I mean, how do you chastise all these different splinter groups and all these groups off of the
- 30:36
- Church of Jesus Christ of Latter -day Saints when they simply say, hey, look, I'm pointing directly to what Joseph and Brigham taught here.
- 30:43
- My point here is this, is it's, of course, questionable how much
- 30:48
- David Alexander understood about his supposed background when he says things like scripture is sola.
- 30:55
- But when he tries to chastise Christianity by saying there's so many different denominations, it's like, well, those numbers are...
- 31:02
- It's a fiction. It's a provable fiction. And look, this may be something new for many of you who are listening to this.
- 31:09
- Maybe many Latter -day Saints right now are listening right now and you're just like, well, how are you guys gonna respond to him? You need to hear this.
- 31:15
- This is really, really important. My great, great, great grandfather,
- 31:22
- John Price Durbin, was a Methodist preacher, circuit preacher. He was the president of Dickinson's Law School.
- 31:29
- He was a chaplain over Congress for two terms. He was a Methodist.
- 31:35
- I'm not a Methodist. And he's my brother in Christ. He preached the gospel. He defended the Trinity. Some of my great...
- 31:42
- Goodness. Most of my heroes. Maybe he was a Calvinistic Methodist.
- 31:47
- Yeah, he was one of the old school Methodists. Yeah, exactly. The men that I read the most and have probably had the greatest impact on me as a
- 31:57
- Christian, as a pastor, as a theologian, they're all Presbyterians. Some of the...
- 32:03
- Look, I will say, look, if you want to get absolutely challenged, changed, kicked in the teeth spiritually,
- 32:12
- I can't recommend a better book than Holiness by J .C.
- 32:18
- Ryle, an Anglican bishop. And I want to hand that book out like candy to God's people because it is a book that will challenge you.
- 32:27
- But it's bittersweet. It's bittersweet. I always tell people, read that book once a year. Get yourself refocused once a year.
- 32:33
- J .C. Ryle's an Anglican. My heroes are all Presbyterians. You look in Christian history and some of the greatest giants of the faith that,
- 32:42
- I mean, I've got a tattoo on my arm of Athanasius. Athanasius Contramundum. Was Athanasius a
- 32:47
- Reformed Baptist? No! I love Augustine. And Augustine did some faceplants.
- 32:53
- Was he a Reformed Baptist like me? No! I mean, some of the giants in history, but they're all my brothers in Christ and I'm theirs.
- 33:02
- And so, yeah, there's differences between Christians. There are some, sometimes not so meaningful differences.
- 33:07
- Sometimes meaningful differences. Sometimes they're adiophora, side issues. Sometimes some issues really, really count.
- 33:13
- You know, we get together as brothers to fight over those things with each other over a cup of coffee or something.
- 33:20
- You know, it's interesting, and I'll end on this in terms of addressing some of the things that David Alexander is saying there, misrepresenting.
- 33:27
- When we're out across the country preaching the gospel and fighting against the issue of child sacrifice in our nation and trying to get equal protection and abolition in the area of child sacrifice.
- 33:43
- You know, what's interesting is, Zach, when we've traveled the country and we do these rallies outside of state capitals, do we ever stand up there in this crowd of people, of people who profess faith in Jesus and they're fighting for the rights of the pre -born and we're standing on scripture, do we ever actually ask people, which denomination are you?
- 33:59
- No, it's just not an issue. It's not an issue. We don't even ask the question. No. As a matter of fact, there's been times where I'm standing in front of a crowd of a couple hundred people and I know for a fact that most of them are not from, like, my tradition.
- 34:10
- Depending especially on their verbal response. Yeah, yeah, exactly. Sometimes you're like, I'm in, I'm in. Yeah, I'm with some charismatic brothers and sisters right now.
- 34:18
- Those are my roots. And that's okay. And that's okay. And we're all unified in one body and there's some differences between us, but this whole fiction that Mormonism tries to spin about the essential disunity of the
- 34:31
- Christian church, it's just pure fiction. Are there differences? Yeah. But there is an essential Catholicity to the
- 34:38
- Christian church. And that when I say Catholic, I mean universalness and unity between the
- 34:44
- Christian church. And yeah, you know, people say, well, why are the differences? Here's the reason differences.
- 34:51
- Because you've got fallible human beings, creatures surrounding an infallible word.
- 34:58
- Right? And as my friend Doug has said in his debate with Dan Barker, when you think about the differences between Christians, take five different Christians, give them the same
- 35:08
- Bible, have them go into five different rooms. Say, okay, five Christians, same Bible. They go into five different rooms.
- 35:13
- They all come out and they have a different interpretation of certain things. Okay? Where's the variable there?
- 35:19
- In the people or the Bibles? It's the people. So like Doug says, it's a good reason to not trust people, but it's the word that's the same.
- 35:29
- It's the objective revelation. And if you have that objective revelation in front of you, you can be shaped by it.
- 35:36
- You can be changed by it. And it is the very thing that the Lord of glory himself, when
- 35:41
- God became a man, it's the very thing that he challenged the Jewish people who
- 35:47
- Paul says in Romans 3 were entrusted with the very oracles of God. They got the word of God and yet they did some face plants too.
- 35:54
- And they had human tradition that they claimed when all the way back to Moses with like the core bond rule.
- 36:00
- And Matthew 15, Jesus, the God himself in the flesh challenges them and gives them the way out.
- 36:07
- He says to them about their divine tradition that they had said was handed down from Moses. This goes all the way back to Moses.
- 36:14
- He says this, he says, Moses says this, but you say this. And so he gives the two beliefs and teaching side by side.
- 36:22
- And he says, thus you invalidate the word of God for the sake of your tradition. And so Jesus taught us what the standard is.
- 36:29
- Here's what God says. And here's what this guy says. And if this contradicts this, you're invalidating the word of God for the sake of your tradition.
- 36:37
- And he held men accountable to the word of God. This is what the word said, you should know.
- 36:45
- And he tested even what many claimed, religious people claimed and leaders claimed.
- 36:52
- He tested their divine traditions by the word of the living God. That is sola scriptura.
- 36:58
- Sola scriptura in principle is just this. God has spoken. That's his revelation. Here's his word.
- 37:05
- This is the standard. By what standard? By this standard. And so you test what people say according to what
- 37:12
- God has revealed about himself. That is sola scriptura. And traditions are good, but scripture is the only thing that we have in the possession of the church that is
- 37:23
- God speaking. And that's what makes it the ultimate. Second Timothy 3 .16.
- 37:29
- That's right. And because it's ultimate, that's why it's able to make us sufficient and equip us for every good work.
- 37:36
- That's right. That's right. All right, here we go. So if you guys caught last week, this is picking right up where we left off.
- 37:46
- After, I'd encourage you guys, you know, go back, listen to last week's episode where we introduced David Alexander and start to get into this.
- 37:53
- This is after the few minutes where David tried to do a little bit of psychoanalysis. And then finally
- 37:59
- Luke brings him back to, yeah, like the original question was. So anyways. Yeah. Isaiah 43 .10.
- 38:06
- Yeah. Okay, so here we go. This is David now attempting to offer Luke some help in responding to Christians who bring the word of God related to the clear teaching in scripture that there is only one true and living
- 38:19
- God. Just a good time to... Yeah, yeah. So just to recap, he quotes
- 38:25
- Isaiah 43 .10. Yeah. Before me there was no God and after me there will be no other.
- 38:30
- And this is presented as therefore the LDS conception of God is refuted by the
- 38:37
- Bible. Right. So, yeah. What's your scriptural response to that question?
- 38:43
- It'll take me half an hour. But maybe I'll just get a start on it. First of all,
- 38:51
- God there is actually addressing. If you read the context of it in Isaiah, Isaiah 42, 43, 44, the whole context is these
- 39:03
- Hebrews that are supposed to be worshipping Yahweh are busily making idols.
- 39:11
- They're making idols of wood, stone, you know, clay, and bowing down to them and worshipping them.
- 39:19
- And of course these are idols that are inspired by demons. And it's just blatant idol worship, worshipping things formed by their own hands.
- 39:32
- Okay? And so our Father's like, look, don't do that. I'm the only one you should be worshipping.
- 39:40
- Yeah, that's not what the text says. At all. That's typically the way that they try to explain it away, or one of them at least.
- 39:47
- Yeah. Like, yes, you know, there's only one God that we worship, but not one
- 39:53
- God in existence. Yeah. The text says, Isaiah 43, 10, context, you are my witnesses declares the
- 40:00
- Lord and my servant whom I have chosen that you may know and believe me and understand that I am he.
- 40:07
- Before me no God was formed nor shall there be after me.
- 40:13
- I, I am the Lord and besides me there is no Savior.
- 40:18
- Before me no God was formed nor shall there be after me. Now, David Alexander wants to pretend that the issue here is just simply the creation of idols.
- 40:27
- What God is talking about there is false gods, these idols. Great. Okay, so let's try that. Let's put David Alexander's answer into the text.
- 40:34
- Ready? That you may know and believe me and understand that I am he. Before me no idol was formed nor shall there be any idol formed after me.
- 40:44
- Doesn't work. Doesn't work, does it? Is the issue idols? The false gods that men create with their hands?
- 40:52
- Because again, I'll do it again. Let's try it. Let's put David Alexander's answer into the text. Before me no idol was formed nor shall there be any idol formed after me.
- 41:03
- There are idols galore around the world today after this text was given to us from God.
- 41:11
- There are many idols formed after this text was given. And so that just doesn't work, does it?
- 41:16
- And it's interesting because yes, Isaiah 40 through 46, amazing section of scripture where God goes to great lengths to describe who he is and how he is the only
- 41:28
- God, there is no other God besides him. Just, we can't read the whole six chapters here on this show today, but just some examples.
- 41:35
- In Isaiah chapter 40, one example, verse 18 of chapter 40 says,
- 41:41
- To whom then will you liken God or what likeness compare with him? And again, 25.
- 41:47
- To whom then will you compare me that I should be like him? Says the Holy One. Well, for Mormonism, that's easy.
- 41:55
- Your father God. And then his God before him. And all these other gods that went through exaltation like you.
- 42:04
- That's who I can compare you to. No, as a matter of fact, I can compare you to me because I'm going through the same process you did.
- 42:12
- I'm just like you, daddy. I'm just like you. And so that's who I'll compare you to, God. So the
- 42:18
- Mormon actually has a response. It's a very sinful response. It's an erroneous response to the
- 42:24
- God of the Bible when he says, Who then will you compare me to that I should be like him?
- 42:30
- Well, God, you're like me because you propagated as a part of your species, me.
- 42:36
- You're making little gods and you were just like me. You went through exaltation on a planet kind of like this one and you were created by your
- 42:45
- God and his goddess wife and that's how you came to be. And so I will liken you to me, just like me.
- 42:53
- But it goes on. See, that's the context. And if you read Isaiah 40 -46,
- 42:59
- I'd encourage you, highly encourage you to do so. God displays over and over and over again that he is unique.
- 43:06
- He's the only God. He's the everlasting God, the everlasting God, the eternal God. As a matter of fact,
- 43:11
- God teaches that explicitly in verse 28 of chapter 40. Have you not heard?
- 43:17
- Have you not? Sorry. Have you not known? Have you not heard? The Lord is the eternal
- 43:22
- God, the everlasting God, the creator of the ends of the earth. He does not go faint or grow weary.
- 43:31
- His understanding is unsearchable. Now, in Mormonism, the
- 43:36
- Mormon God, even over this earth, is not the eternal God. He has not been
- 43:42
- God from all eternity. He has not. Like the God of the Bible, Psalm 90 verse 2, from eternity into eternity, from everlasting to everlasting, the same yesterday, today, and forever.
- 43:54
- He is the unchanging God. He is the eternal God, the everlasting God. The God of the Bible says, you can't compare me to anything or anyone.
- 44:03
- And he says he's the eternal God. He moves into, you can move into Isaiah 43 .10, where God specifically says there, he says, before me no
- 44:13
- God was formed, nor shall there be after me. Keep moving into the same context, the same discussion, and you see
- 44:20
- Isaiah 44 .6, more context. Thus says the Lord, the King of Israel, and his
- 44:26
- Redeemer, the Lord of hosts, I am the first, and I am the last. Besides me, there is no
- 44:33
- God. Now in Mormonism, that's not true. The God of this earth isn't the first.
- 44:42
- He isn't the last God. Not the first and not the last, but it goes on.
- 44:48
- Who is like me? Let him proclaim it. And then all the other gods in Mormonism should be going, me, me,
- 44:56
- I'm like you. As a matter of fact, the person reading this, according to Mormon theology, should be able to say, me.
- 45:04
- God asked the question. It's a rhetorical question. The answer should be obvious. It says, who is like me?
- 45:10
- Let him proclaim it. Let him declare and set it before me. Since I appointed an ancient people, let them declare what is to come and what will happen.
- 45:18
- Fear not, nor be afraid. Have I not told you of old and declared it? And you are my witnesses.
- 45:23
- Is there a God besides me? Indeed, there is no other rock. I know not any.
- 45:30
- Now, the God of Mormonism can't say that. He can't say that.
- 45:36
- He's not the first. He's not the last. He knows of many other gods, and you can compare all kinds of other gods and their experiences to exactly his experience.
- 45:46
- And so, I'll let you answer if you want to respond to that. I want to read to you. Did you want to respond to that specifically?
- 45:54
- I would just add one thing about that, because so much of this can be resolved with a proper doctrine of God. You know, you read from Isaiah, before me there was no
- 46:02
- God formed. And God is fundamentally saying to his people, what makes me different than you or any other so -called
- 46:10
- God is that I'm not, I didn't come into being at any point.
- 46:16
- In other words, I'm not an aspect of the created order like everything else. I'm fundamentally other.
- 46:22
- To put it in the way that God himself does when he appears to Moses, I am who
- 46:27
- I am. I am, I was, I will always be. God possesses within himself a seedy.
- 46:33
- He is self -existent. He's not dependent upon anything else for his existence. Nothing else in the created order is he dependent upon.
- 46:42
- Paul says in Acts 17, God doesn't live in temples made by man. He's not served by human hands as though he needed anything.
- 46:50
- So nothing about him is dependent upon anything else or anyone else. And that's what makes him unique and incomparable.
- 46:57
- He's eternal. He has no beginning. He's immortal. He'll have no end.
- 47:03
- He is immutable, which means he does not change. He's not subject to elements of creation to alter his fundamental being.
- 47:12
- And so I believe that so much of this can be resolved with the proper doctrine of God. When we say the God of the Bible, we're referring to the self -existent one, the one in whom every other aspect of creation is dependent upon, including us, his creatures.
- 47:25
- And the one, the only one, worthy of eternal worship. And that's why, is because he's different.
- 47:31
- And that's why David's a little confused about the worship going on for eternity of this
- 47:37
- God. And rightfully so. I mean, the confusion would be there if you can't conceive of a
- 47:43
- God bigger than yourself, you know? What kind of a God could I possibly worship forever?
- 47:50
- You know, they can't conceive of any, you know, conception of God outside of their own imagination.
- 47:55
- Their God is very small. Because of Joseph Smith's Journal of Discourses, Volume 6, page 3, 1844, the
- 48:02
- King Follett Discourse, Joseph Smith's most famous discourse given at the funeral of Elder King Follett.
- 48:10
- He says this, I will prove that the world is wrong by showing what God is. I'm going to inquire after God for I want you all to know him and to be familiar with him.
- 48:18
- You will then know that I am his servant for I speak as one having authority. And before this, he said that this was given to him by the
- 48:25
- Holy Spirit. So this is revelation from God. Scripture. He says, I will go back to the beginning before the world was to show what kind of being
- 48:32
- God is. God himself was once as we are now and is an exalted man and sits enthroned in yonder heavens.
- 48:40
- That is the great secret. I say if you were to see him today, you would see him like a man in form like yourselves in all the person, image, and very form as a man.
- 48:51
- It is necessary that we should understand the character and being of God and how he came to be so.
- 48:59
- For I'm going to tell you how God came to be God. We've imagined and supposed that God was
- 49:04
- God from all eternity. Now why? Why? Who's doing that imagining and supposing?
- 49:09
- Why would we imagine that? Who's imagining and supposing that God's been God for all eternity? The people that have read the
- 49:15
- Bible and see God calling himself the everlasting God, the eternal
- 49:20
- God, the God who's been God from all eternity, into all eternity, the God who even his very name expresses the fact that he is the eternal
- 49:29
- God, the same yesterday, today, and forever. The God of Mormonism is not the same yesterday, today, and forever.
- 49:35
- He is somebody who's gone through the process of exaltation. He says this. Joseph Smith says, quote,
- 49:41
- I will refute that idea, the idea that God has been God for all eternity. I will take away and do away the veil so that you may see.
- 49:49
- It is the first principle of the gospel to know for a certainty that the character of God and to know that we may converse with him as one man converses with another and that he was once a man like us.
- 49:59
- Yea, that God himself, the father of us all, dwelt on an earth the same as Jesus Christ himself did.
- 50:05
- Here then is eternal life to know the only wise and true
- 50:11
- God. And every Christian's going, wait, I know that. That's from Jesus' high priestly prayer.
- 50:17
- I've heard that. We're going to get into that in a minute, actually. I've heard that before. Here then is eternal life to know the only wise and true
- 50:24
- God. And then he says, and you have got to learn how to be gods yourselves and be kings and priests to God the same as all gods have done before you.
- 50:36
- Namely, by going from one small degree to another, from a small capacity to a great one, from grace to grace, from exaltation to exaltation until you attain to the resurrection of the dead and are able to dwell in everlasting burnings and sit in glory as do those who sit enthroned in everlasting power.
- 50:53
- He says in volume 6, page 5, 1844, Thus the head God brought forth the gods in the grand council.
- 51:00
- In the beginning, the head of the gods called a council of the gods and they came together and concocted a plan to create the world and to people it.
- 51:08
- Very different from Isaiah 44, 6. Yeah. I am the first and I am the last.
- 51:13
- Besides me there is no God. And is there a God besides me?
- 51:19
- Indeed there is no other God. I know not one. The God of Joseph Smith knows of many other gods.
- 51:26
- Right. I think, I keep coming back to this, but I think it's so important because his claim is that this is about idols, right?
- 51:32
- That's how they try to wave the hand and dismiss the verse, but the Mormon that says I can't understand this
- 51:39
- God, therefore I will not worship him. Right? In other words, if God doesn't conform to my understanding, which is what
- 51:47
- Paul warns about, right? God is not, he's not a product of your imagination or your own creation by your hands.
- 51:55
- The Mormon that says that, I won't worship a God I can't comprehend or fathom.
- 52:00
- That is the height of idolatry. Yeah. Ironically, given that that's what he is saying that passage says, the height of idolatry is your
- 52:09
- God is too small and he's just a reflection of you in the mirror. That's right. That's right. Okay, onward.
- 52:17
- The whole point though is that that oneness, okay, that oneness does not, just because God in those verses in Isaiah 40, in the
- 52:33
- Isaiah 40s talks about he's the only one, that doesn't mean necessarily that God is one numerically.
- 52:41
- And you can see this if you just read the Lord Jesus Christ intercessory prayer.
- 52:47
- Actually, those texts from Isaiah and many others do say that God is one numerically.
- 52:54
- The only being of God. That he's the first, the last. Besides him there is no God. He doesn't even know of any other
- 53:01
- God. You can't compare him to anything else. There's none formed before him.
- 53:06
- There's none formed after him. He is God alone in the heavens above and on the earth below.
- 53:12
- There is no other. That's numerical. Yeah. There's only one. The Lord our God is one. Yeah, I mean, the
- 53:18
- Shema, the basic confession of every Jew in history, part of the morning and evening prayer,
- 53:24
- Shema Yisrael, Yahweh Eloheinu, Yahweh Echad, Hero Israel, the Lord our
- 53:29
- God, the Lord is one. Deuteronomy 6 .4, the Shema. God is the only
- 53:35
- God. Monotheism. There is only one God. And yeah, that's numerical.
- 53:41
- One. The number one. He is only one. And so none before, none after.
- 53:48
- He's the only one. It is numerical. And now what David Alexander attempts to do is to say, well,
- 53:54
- Isaiah 43 .10, that's about false gods people create with their hands. Okay, again, just try to read that into the text.
- 54:01
- It absolutely does not work. He waves his hand at the text. He says, really what it's... Let me jump to John 17.
- 54:08
- So the way I'll answer Isaiah 43 .10 is not actually in its context. A different context.
- 54:15
- I'm going to jump to a book 700 years later in terms of the ministry of Jesus Christ to jump to a different context in Jesus' high priestly prayer talking about the unity and fellowship between the
- 54:32
- Father and the Son, and of course, between us and God. Let me jump to a completely different context, wave the hand at Isaiah 43 .10,
- 54:41
- and let me try to explain it away by jumping to a different book in a different context in a different time period to answer the text.
- 54:49
- Friends, Latter -day Saints that are watching this, is that how you handle the Bible? Better.
- 54:56
- To make it just more meaningful for all of us. Is that how we handle anybody's writings?
- 55:02
- Anybody. Do we say, well, let me just take a snippet here, explain it away, and jump to a completely different book they wrote in a completely different context to try to explain that away.
- 55:11
- We don't treat our friends' writings that way. And this is how David Alexander handles the
- 55:17
- Word of God. He waves the hand at the text, jumps to a completely different context, but we'll answer him there too, so let's hear him.
- 55:24
- In John 17, where the Lord Jesus Christ specifically says, he says, look,
- 55:32
- I'm not just praying for you alone, speaking of the 11 apostles, Judas and Lev, but I'm praying for everyone who will believe in me through your words, so that's everybody else that ever comes to faith, that they would all be one just as the
- 55:50
- Father and I are one. That the world would know that you sent me,
- 55:57
- Father, and that you love the lost people of the world. I'm paraphrasing here, of course. That you love the lost people of the world just as much as you love me.
- 56:07
- So, what the Lord Jesus Christ there is praying that all the believers would be one in just the same way that the
- 56:15
- Father and the Son are one. Mm -hmm. Okay? Actually, let's see if I can...
- 56:22
- Yeah, yeah, keep talking. I might even be able to pull that up right now. Is he praying that all believers would be one numerically, or is he praying that all believers would be one in heart, mind, spirit, and purpose?
- 56:34
- Obviously, his prayer is that all believers would be one in heart, mind, spirit, and purpose.
- 56:41
- He's not praying that all believers would be one numerically. That would be absurd. Well, when you wave the hand at God's explicit statements about who he is, his identity, his being, and then jump to a completely different context about the unity between the
- 57:03
- Father and the Son and their fellowship, maybe that could make sense. But it doesn't make sense in terms of actually responding to the text itself.
- 57:12
- Let's read John 17, and let's get to a part that you skipped, David. Again, like I said last week, there's no hope.
- 57:19
- I have no hope that David will actually watch this. He says that he will not watch these. He won't engage like that.
- 57:26
- But here's what you skipped, David. John 17. So it's interesting here that two things are happening here in this text that would be very important for someone who was reciting the
- 58:06
- Shema. Wait a second. Wait a second. John's done this throughout the
- 58:12
- Gospel of John. He starts the Gospel of John off with, In the beginning was the
- 58:21
- Word. He was already there. He was with the Father, and He was God.
- 58:26
- All things came into being through Jesus. And without Him, nothing was made that's been made. Mormonism does not believe that.
- 58:34
- The text in John goes over and over and over towards Jesus is Yahweh. Jesus is
- 58:40
- God. He's the eternal God. John 8. Unless you believe I am, you will die in your sins.
- 58:46
- I am? The name of God?
- 58:53
- He's taken that upon Himself before Abraham sprang into existence.
- 58:58
- Ego eimi. I am. And they pick up stones to kill Him. Why? Because there's only one
- 59:03
- God, and Jesus is taking the name of God upon Himself. And in John 10,
- 59:08
- He does it again. I and the Father are one. They pick up stones to kill Him, and He says, Many good works have
- 59:14
- I shown you from the Father. For which of these do you stone me? And they said, For thy good works we stone thee, not but for blasphemy, and that you being a man make yourself
- 59:21
- God. Why? Because there's only one God, and He's claiming to be God Himself. Yeah.
- 59:27
- And in John 17, Jesus says, Listen to this. Listen to how, in a monotheistic context, if you're not
- 59:34
- God, how scandalous this is. Jesus says, Father, the hour has come. Glorify your
- 59:40
- Son that the Son may glorify you. What does
- 59:45
- God say in the Old Testament? He says that He is Yahweh. He doesn't share
- 59:51
- His glory with anybody else. And Jesus says, He shares it.
- 59:59
- Glorify Me, the Son, that the Son may glorify you. And everybody knows who knows their
- 01:00:05
- Bible. God says He doesn't share His glory with anybody else. He's the only God. And so, you want to ask the question,
- 01:00:12
- Why do Christians believe in the Trinity? But just, I'll say one more thing, and let you jump in here. He says this, And this is eternal life, that they may know you, the only true
- 01:00:21
- God, and Jesus Christ, whom you have sent. Yeah. The only true
- 01:00:27
- God. The Mormon Jesus isn't allowed to talk like that.
- 01:00:33
- Because in Mormonism, Elohim, the God of this earth, the
- 01:00:38
- Father of this earth, is not the only true God. He is not the only true
- 01:00:45
- God. You have Mormon apostles and prophets that have said things like, There's more gods than there is matter.
- 01:00:52
- That's a lot of true gods. A lot of real gods, through exaltation. Makes Hinduism's pantheon seem small.
- 01:00:59
- It does. It truly does. But here is something that David Alexander skipped in the text.
- 01:01:05
- David quoted the latter part of it, talking about fellowship and unity between the Father and the Son, and of course the people of God.
- 01:01:12
- All of that. We grant that. There is a different way you can talk about oneness and unity and fellowship.
- 01:01:18
- We grant it. But David conveniently skipped where Jesus Christ, the second person in the
- 01:01:26
- Trinity, Jesus Christ, God incarnate, refers to the Father as the only true
- 01:01:33
- God. There is only one true God. Now, if anybody has a problem with that, why is
- 01:01:39
- Jesus calling the Father the true God? It's okay. Read Hebrews 1. The Father calls Jesus God.
- 01:01:45
- And along with that, the second part of that verse, in verse 3, notice that eternal life is dependent upon joint knowledge of the
- 01:01:54
- Father and the Son. So, it's interesting how Mormonism distorts that text, how
- 01:02:00
- Joseph perverted it and then substituted a different line in it altogether.
- 01:02:08
- He said, this is eternal life, that they may know you and that you've got to learn to become gods yourselves.
- 01:02:14
- So, the key to eternal life for Joseph was becoming a god. That's what he meant, definitionally, by eternal life.
- 01:02:22
- He meant becoming a god. He meant transcending your human limitations and capabilities and ascending to the divine, which is no different than any other man -made system.
- 01:02:32
- Every man -made system wants to cross that boundary line between earth and heaven.
- 01:02:38
- The biblical worldview communicates that there's only one man to do that. There's only one man that's ever crossed that boundary, except he did it the other way.
- 01:02:45
- He came from heaven to earth. He condescended, took on human nature, and he humbled himself to the cross death.
- 01:02:52
- So, the good news of the gospel is not that man can become God. It's that God became man to reconcile us to himself for his glory.
- 01:03:00
- So, that knowledge of Jesus alongside the Father, that is the good news.
- 01:03:06
- The good news of eternal life is this, is that you must know the life -giver. You must know the life, the way, the truth, and the life.
- 01:03:13
- You must know Jesus. That's what it means to have eternal life and to have peace with God.
- 01:03:19
- And so, it's interesting how Joseph distorts that, perverts it, rips it out, and then substitutes it with a different gospel.
- 01:03:26
- Yeah, well, I'll read them, and it's a perfect way to end this portion here. As you all heard me read the
- 01:03:33
- King Follett discourse a moment ago, but what Zach is getting at is just this point here. We've got John 17 in front of us.
- 01:03:39
- David appealed to it, so we'll go to the text too. Here's Joseph Smith, 1844. He says, quote,
- 01:03:46
- Here then is eternal life to know the only wise and true God, and you have got to learn how to be gods yourselves.
- 01:03:55
- Jesus Christ says, and this is eternal life that they know you, the only true
- 01:04:02
- God, and Jesus Christ, whom you have sent. So Joseph Smith pulls language and terminology from the
- 01:04:10
- Holy Scriptures, and Joseph Smith distorts the message. He gives you another gospel.
- 01:04:16
- It's not about that dual knowledge of the Father and the Son and eternal life. It is about you becoming a god and goddess of your own planet one day.
- 01:04:25
- That's the goal. And of course, Jesus goes on, and he's already referred to the fact that there is an advocate, a comforter, who is different than the
- 01:04:36
- Father and the Son. He will send the Spirit to lead us into all truth, and he is the one, the comforter,
- 01:04:44
- Jesus says, that I will send to you in the Father's name. So Jesus, one, is speaking,
- 01:04:51
- I will send to you the comforter whom the Father has given me.
- 01:04:56
- So the Spirit himself proceeds from both the Father and the Son. And so we have all three persons of the triune
- 01:05:02
- God coming to description there, within Jesus' own words. Right.
- 01:05:08
- And so are there aspects to the Trinity that are incomprehensible? Of course, because we're creatures. But what do you have consistently from Genesis to Revelation?
- 01:05:16
- There's only one true and living God. Jesus said it. There's only one true God. That's it. There's only one true God. None before God, none after God.
- 01:05:22
- He's the everlasting God. He's the only God. In heaven above and on the earth below, there's only one God. Here, O Israel, the
- 01:05:28
- Lord our God, the Lord is one. There's only one God. And what do you see in Scripture? Clearly, the Father is called God.
- 01:05:34
- What do you see in Scripture? Clearly, Jesus is called God. He's called our great God and Savior. Jesus receives worship.
- 01:05:40
- Jesus forgives sins. Jesus controls his own creation. He walks on water. He heals the blind and the deaf.
- 01:05:46
- Jesus raises himself from the dead. Destroy this temple, and in three days, I will raise it up again. The Bible says that Jesus is
- 01:05:52
- God. Jesus took the divine name of God upon himself. Jesus takes divine prerogatives. The Holy Spirit is called
- 01:05:59
- God. The Holy Spirit speaks to Paul. He actually talks to Paul. He's not like a divine force or God's active force like you tell us witnesses.
- 01:06:08
- He's eternal also. Yeah, he's the eternal spirit of God. He's active in creation. Genesis chapter 1.
- 01:06:13
- You see that the Spirit of God is called God in Scripture. It says that the
- 01:06:18
- Father raised Jesus from the dead. It says Jesus raised Jesus from the dead. It says the Spirit raised Jesus from the dead. And yet it says God raised
- 01:06:24
- Jesus from the dead. You see in Scripture this unified testimony of one God. The Father is God. The Son is
- 01:06:29
- God. The Holy Spirit is God. And yet the Son is not the Father. The Father is not the Spirit. The Spirit is not the
- 01:06:34
- Father or the Son. There are three eternal persons within the one being of God, the only
- 01:06:41
- God, the true and living God. That's what the Bible teaches. Within the one being that is called God, there exist three co -eternal, co -equal persons, namely the
- 01:06:50
- Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit. There's a definition of the Trinity that can be defended from the Bible itself.
- 01:06:57
- And it is of course what Christians have believed and defended since the inception of the church.
- 01:07:04
- And so what David Alexander is demonstrating here is that he cannot engage with the text itself.
- 01:07:10
- He has to leap from one context to another. And he has to also ignore what the passage itself says.
- 01:07:16
- Again, and you can read this for yourselves, when David Alexander attempts to wave the hand at Isaiah 43 .10
- 01:07:22
- to jump to John 17, he seems to forget that John 17 starts with an admission that Mormonism cannot admit to and that there is only one true
- 01:07:33
- God, the only true God. Mormonism cannot teach that, accept that, believe that.
- 01:07:41
- And so I think what we need to do now is go into our after show.
- 01:07:46
- Yep. So here's what we're going to do, everybody. We're going to head over into our after show. Right now over at apologiestudios .com.
- 01:07:54
- I'm sure you're going to be seeing more from us on the subject of David Alexander in coming weeks.
- 01:08:01
- Very excited to continue this discussion. I think it's an important one, especially for the
- 01:08:06
- Latter -day Saints that are asking questions. And the Latter -day
- 01:08:11
- Saints that are testing these things with the scriptures. So I know we only got to a little bit today of David Alexander, but wanted to make sure we gave a meaningful response to some of the claims made by this gentleman.
- 01:08:24
- So if you guys would, go over to apologiestudios .com. If you're not signed up for All Access, sign up for All Access.
- 01:08:31
- We do the after show right after the YouTube platform. We're going to be over there for a little while. Come join us over there.
- 01:08:37
- A big thank you to everybody who's a part of this ministry with us. Was at the airport yesterday and engaged with some
- 01:08:45
- Jehovah's Witnesses. So hopefully that will be dropping in the next day or two. You'll get a chance to see that.
- 01:08:51
- And hopefully that'll get in front of a lot of Jehovah's Witnesses. We've seen a lot of Jehovah's Witnesses come to Christ through the content that you've helped to make with us.
- 01:08:59
- So thank you guys for being a part of this ministry with us. Be in prayer for End Abortion Now. Lots is happening right now.
- 01:09:05
- We're building some important stuff right now for you to help us to share with pastors and churches around the world.
- 01:09:11
- That is Zachary Conover. Later. Director of Communications with EAN. Be in prayer for us, guys.