Why Witness to Mormons?

Apologia Studios

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But the problem is in the culture we live in today where there's so much subjectivism and so much of a lack of concern for objective truth and this is right and that's not right.

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People will probably be asking the question, well why are you going to a place that says they believe in Jesus Christ, they believe that he died for sins, they believe he died on a cross, they believe that he rose again from the dead.

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They say they believe this book, they just have some other addition, additional content.

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Why would you risk your lives and put your family into this kind of suffering to reach a community that already professes faith in Jesus?

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Sure, and you already read it a little bit, but we have 2 Corinthians 11, people are going to come, they're going to preach a different gospel, a different Jesus, they're going to have a different spirit, the

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Apostle Paul warned us to expect that. We have Galatians chapter 1, the

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Judaizers came with a gospel, a foreign gospel, foreign to what they had already preached.

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They added to the grace and the merit of Jesus Christ alone, his work alone, right?

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So we're warned about that, that there will be different Jesuses, and so that's our heart.

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They're preaching and believing in a different Jesus Christ, and they have a different gospel.

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They have a gospel where you have to be baptized and confirmed as a member in the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter -day

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Saints, you have to remain active and participate in that church, you have to solidify your testimony, you have to tithe, you have to obey the words of the prophet, you have to obey the words of wisdom, you have to go through temple endowments, temple ordinances, you have to live the law of chastity, if you're a young man you have to typically, you know, there's pressure to go on mission, you have to be, again, sealed in the temple there, these are all the things that were stacking up upon the gospel of Jesus Christ, and in Galatians they only wanted to add circumcision, but all the things that I just said are stacked up upon the free gift of Jesus Christ.

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So, that is a gospel that can't save. Again, we love them, we love them so much, but they're deluded in thinking that a gospel, a false gospel of a false

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Jesus will actually save them, it'll condemn them. And so, our hope is to go there and to share that true gospel of Jesus Christ with them, and see them take that faith, misguided, deceived faith, and place that faith in that love.

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A lot of them have a love for God, generally, but to take those things and place them in the one true and living

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God. That's all we want. Andrew? Yeah, that's good. So, in terms of when someone says, well, you know, they believe in Jesus, they talk about Jesus, I mean, their church is the

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Church of Jesus Christ of Latter -day Saints. Well, I mean, Jesus talks about it himself in Matthew 7, 21 through 23, and this is my burden, where my heart is for these people who claim to know

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Jesus. He says, Not everyone who says to me, Lord, Lord, will enter the kingdom of heaven, but the one who does the will of my

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Father who is in heaven. On that day, many will say to me, Lord, Lord, did we not prophesy in your name and cast out demons in your name and do many mighty works in your name?

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And then I will declare to them, I never knew you, depart from me, you workers of lawlessness. So there's a massive group of people who exist in this world who claim to know

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Jesus, but they don't actually believe in the Jesus of Scripture, right? And so the people group, this

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LDS people group, they claim to have multiple standards, right? But we know there's one that they cling to over another.

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So they would use the Book of Mormon, the Pearl of Great Price, and the Doctrine and Covenants to interpret the Bible. What is the

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Mormon story about Jesus Christ? Because they're using our terminology. Muslims use our terminology.

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They say Jesus Christ. They say God. They say prophet. Jehovah's Witnesses use our terminology.

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They say Heavenly Father. They say Jesus Christ. They say Holy Spirit. And so just because someone says the name

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Jesus Christ doesn't mean they're talking about Jesus Christ. And that's clear from Scripture.

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I mean, you have the Apostle John and the Apostle Paul having to deal with the early beginnings of Gnosticism in the

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New Testament. You can see it in their writings. And John, in one of his very short epistles, he warns the early church, who were meeting at that time in house churches, he warns them if somebody denies that Jesus Christ has come in the flesh, they don't know

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God. And so he says, you're not even going to let this person into your house. You don't let them into your worship service.

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You don't let them disrupt this. We're told in Scripture to earnestly contend for the faith which is once for all delivered to the saints.

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You have Galatians, very short letter from the Apostle Paul, where he is, modern language, freaking out over the fact that the church in Galatia is accepting this perversion of the biblical gospel.

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There's nothing in Galatians that would suggest that people in Galatia, these Judaizers, that they deny the deity of Christ, that they were not monotheists, that they denied the authority of Scripture.

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It seems like they were on board with all those things because Paul doesn't even address it. He addresses it elsewhere, but he doesn't even address it.

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But in Galatians, he's addressing a gospel that sounds so stinking close. It sounds so close.

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I mean, what's the big deal of just saying trust in Jesus and at least keep this one part of the law?

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I mean, you've got to get these guys circumcised, for goodness sakes. That's what we've grown up with. That's our whole history. That's a sign of the covenants.

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And Paul essentially, he eviscerates them and says basically, if you go this route, if you go the route of law, even to that degree of just keep this one part,

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Christ will be of no benefit to you. Yeah. You know, you've fallen from grace. It's either grace in this point or it's law.

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So the point is, is in Scripture, you see the apostles, that they have the understanding that Jesus Christ and his nature in person can be understood to the degree they can also be defended over against false versions of him.

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And you think, well, what are the Gnostics saying about Jesus? Well, that he just didn't take on flesh. Yep. Right?

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And John says to that, you don't know God. If you don't think he took on flesh, if you think he's some sort of spirit from some higher story, then you don't know

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God. He calls it the spirit of the antichrist. Oh, exactly. And Paul clearly thinks the gospel can be so understood at a basic level that he can actually tell people, you preach that anathema on you.

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I don't care if an angel comes down from heaven and preaches any other gospel. He says anathema, eternal condemnation.

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So the gospel can actually be understood because Paul expects people to defend it, to recognize an erroneous gospel, and to resist it, to fight against it as Christians.

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Again, when we talk about going to Utah, we're talking about going into a context of a community that yes, they use our language.

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So did David Koresh. Yes, they talk about the gospel of Jesus Christ.

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Again, so did Mary Baker Eadie. So have any number of cult leaders.

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So did Jim Jones, right? Just because somebody uses

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Christian terminology does not mean they know the Lord of glory. I mean, Jesus, he says in John 8 that his mission and his person is so clearly defined and understood and explicated by him that he actually says, unless you believe

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I am, you'll die in your sins. So if you don't believe that Jesus is the

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I am, that he is eternal God, if you don't believe that he's Yahweh come in the flesh, then you don't know

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God. And what we have in Utah, of course, is a community, a very large community that so desperately needs the true

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Christ and the true gospel. What's the goal? It's that the Mormon people have peace with God.

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It's the Mormon people have peace with God. That's the goal is you want them to know Jesus like we know Jesus, to have the gift of eternal life.