Do You Know Jesus?

Are you guys LDS? Yeah, we are. How long have you been LDS for? My whole life. What's your story? Have you lived in Utah your whole life? No, I'm from kind of all over. Lived in Detroit, Dallas. Um, I lived out in Malvern, Florida if you guys know that area.

Nice, nice. So what brought you up here? Just BYU? Yeah. Both of you guys? Yeah. Nice. Did you go on a mission? Yeah, of course. Where'd you go? Orem, Utah.

Orem? Wow, you got sent to Utah. Thank you. What was that like? It was great. Loved it. Yeah? Good people. Cool, cool. So if I were to ask you a question like, who is Jesus, what would you say? Because I think it's an important question, right?

Because Jesus even asked his disciples, he's like, who do you say that I am? What would you say?

I think most importantly, he's our savior. You know, he saved me from sin, saved you from sin, and makes it possible for you to come back to him. It's a beautiful thing, you know?

Gotcha, gotcha. Would you think that, if I were to, I'll read John 1, 1 to you real quick. Tell me if you might agree with that, okay? It says, in the beginning was the word, and the word was with God, and the word was God.

Sure. All things were created through him, there was nothing that came into being unless it was created through Jesus. Would you agree with that? Yeah, definitely. Yeah? Interesting. Do you believe that Jesus created Lucifer?

I think that he's created all things, and it doesn't really matter what he has or has not created, but anything we know he's created, so.

Okay, the reason why I ask is, I've heard, and you can correct me if I'm wrong, just from LDS doctrine, that Jesus didn't create Lucifer, that he's the spirit brother of Lucifer.

The Eternal God, the Cross, and Justification

I guess, like, before we jump into that stuff, like, what do you guys believe about Jesus? Yeah! Jesus to you.

Oh, cool, I love it, great. Yeah. Jesus, to me, is what the Bible says about Jesus. It says, in the beginning was the word, the word was with God, and the word was God. So, I believe that Jesus Christ is the eternal God.

He is the same yesterday, today, and forever. He was, and is, and is to come. He has always existed as God, eternally, created all things, including Lucifer. Then he took on flesh, and died on the cross for my sins, because I am born in a position before God as going to hell, right?

Because my father is Adam. That's my original position before God. I'm a descendant of Adam. So, what happens is, is since I'm a sinner, and I've offended a holy, holy, holy God, since God is love, and God is righteous, he must hate and also judge sin, right?

But Jesus, the eternal God, took on flesh, right? And he died the death that I deserve on the cross, so when I stand before the Father, I can stand justified purely through the righteous robes of Christ.

But I believe only the eternal God can do that. Yeah, that's what I believe about Jesus, but I believe that's what the scriptures say. Yeah, I love that. Yeah, so...

Knowing Christ by Scripture, Not by Feelings

Like, what kind of experiences have, like, come closer to him? What kind of experiences? What ways have you, like, I guess, like, how's that become real to you? Yeah. You know, like, what kind of things have made you, like, have that burn in your soul, I guess.

Right, right, okay.

So, like, kind of saying, how do I know that that's true? That Jesus is real, yeah, like... Right, so I... How do you feel it? Regardless of feeling, I would say the Bible doesn't tell me that it's what I feel that determines truth.

Yeah. It's actually God's word that determines truth, so it's almost irrelevant to how I feel. But I can tell you that I was spiritually dead, right? I was doing horrible things when I was in high school.

Horrible things. I tell you, I'm worthy of death before the law of God. But he took me and he changed me. In Ezekiel, it says that he'll take our hearts of stone and replace them with the heart of flesh and cause us to love his statutes.

Yeah. So, because God regenerated my soul, when he put in me the Holy Spirit, I now love the things of God, whereas I didn't before. Does that make sense? Well, that scared me a little bit. So, I'd say that.

Testing the Spirits and the Warning About a Different Jesus

But do you find the issue, like, because Paul warns us in 2 Corinthians 11, he says there's people that will come and they'll preach a different Jesus, a different gospel, who will accept a different spirit.

So, we have to be warned, right, that there may be people who believe in different Jesuses. Right? The Bible tells us to test the spirits. So, the question would be, how do you test that what Joseph said is actually true?

How do you test it?

I don't know. I think, especially in today's day and age, like, I think, so I went on a mission and everything, right? I think something I saw big time is we have a lot of things we can disagree over.

You know, like, we can kind of get frustrated and annoyed and just hate each other. Right. There's no reason to because that's the point that Jesus came. He said, love one another as I have loved you.

And, you know, I love you too for coming and trying to help people understand who Jesus is. And that's so awesome that you're doing that. I want people to love him and understand him and come closer to him because he makes us better people.

And he makes us happier people. I can see it in you. You know, like, you've come to know him and you've felt that burning. You've changed from that high school kind of crazy guy. And it's the same for me.

You know, like, I wish I could have changed some of those things. But the whole point of Jesus is that he has changed it for me. And as I turn to him and as I allow him to change me, it's going to happen.

And I love that. It's fantastic. People kind of look at us and they're like, man, these people are crazy. I don't think they're crazy. And they look at you like, ah, these people are crazy. I think you believe something.

I don't think you're crazy.

I know what you're saying, though. There's people who go, there's people who believe in God. Why do you believe in God and Jesus?

This is so weird. But there's nothing better, you know? There's nothing that can change us like he can. Yeah. You know what?

I believe you're sincere. I really do. But I believe that you can be sincere but also sincerely deceived. And I say that respectfully also because I love you. Because if you love someone, you want to tell them the truth, right?

Oh, yeah, I appreciate that. So when I ask the question, how do you know if Joseph Smith is a prophet? This is the answer I would say.

Joseph Smith, a Different Jesus, and the Tests of a Prophet

So I want to be completely honest. I'm not too interested in going into the differences that we have. But I appreciate that you guys are going out trying to teach people about Jesus.

We teach a different Jesus than you teach, though. Aren't we creating people that are going to go to hell or be cast out into outer darkness or not be able to be with the Father? I don't know.

I don't know what you guys believe. And I don't know what the differences are. But thank you for your time.

Thank you for your time. You guys are very nice. We're teaching about the Muslim Jesus. He's not God. I'd say Jesus, we're teaching about. Is that good or bad?

I love Jesus. I'm glad you guys love Jesus. Simple as that. That's good. Guys, remember, though, Paul warns us there's people who preach a different Jesus. That's true. There's two tests of a prophet in Scripture.

I'll leave you with this real quick. Go to Deuteronomy 13, verses 1 through 8. Read it, okay? 1 through 8, Deuteronomy 13. Yes, and then Deuteronomy 18, verses 18 through 24. There's two tests of a prophet there, okay?

Just read those, and then test Joseph Smith. Can I give this back to you? You sure can.