ROB’S REPORT
Dear Ministry Team,
The LDS Fall General Conference was very exciting and busy this year. Conference was held on October 1st and 2nd and the weather was very nice, short sleeve weather. So Doug and I were able to wear our mission shirts. Mine says, “Why Don’t Mormons Believe the Book of Mormon?” (Alma 11:26-29) and Doug’s shirt and sign says, “Is the Mormon Jesus the Same Jesus of the Bible?” (2 Corinthians 11:4).
When the weather is nice people are more willing to stop and talk to us, giving Doug and I many fruitful and seed planting conversations both Saturday and Sunday. I handed out around 300 tracts and would guess that 25% of these tracts were accepted by the Elders (Male LDS Missionaries). I enjoyed the variety of looks I would get from the Elders when I would say, “Hi Elders, How are you doing, have you ever read the Book of Mormon?” Which then gave me an opportunity to hand them my “Why Don’t Mormons Believe the Book of Mormon?” tract. Of course they wouldn’t stay and talk but they would read the tract.
At one point I had two LDS men stop and read my shirt and then one of them looked up the Alma 11:26-29 and read it out loud in an arrogant voice. So I asked them if they believed the Book of Mormon prophet Amulek’s statement that there is only one God. They both agreed there is only one God so off we went on the subject of the Trinity and the nature of God.
It is amazing how blind the LDS people are to the teaching of the Trinity. When you state that God is 3 persons who make one God, they say “That is what we believe too.” So then you have to show them from their own scriptures (a good place to start is paged 681 of the LDS Bible Dictionary in their quad) that the LDS church teaches there are 3 Gods that make up the Godhead, not 3 persons that make one God.
I also brought up their view that God was once a man like us. I explained that their First Article of Faith (We believe in God the Eternal Father and in his Son Jesus Christ and in the Holy Ghost) was misleading because their “God the Father” was once a man before he obtained exaltation and was appointed as “a God” over this world by a counsel of Gods so God the Father was not an eternal God, having no beginning of days.
I explained that the First Article of Faith should read, “We believe in God the Appointed Father and in his Son Jesus Christ and in the Holy Ghost.” Surprisingly enough, they didn’t argue with me and even somewhat accepted what I was saying about the First Article of Faith being misleading.
Our conversation came to an end when they proud fully had no problem with believing that they could become Gods, Deity themselves one day. I stated I would be praying for them and told them that this was nothing short of blasphemy to God and that they would stand in judgment before God. At that point, their arrogant and prideful attitude changed to a more friendly one and I believe they left with the conviction of the Holy Spirit because the next day I spoke briefly with one of them and he was not arrogant or prideful as the day before.
Saturday I spoke briefly with an LDS man and gave him some tracts and on Sunday this same man approached me saying he didn’t believe what my tracts said. He said that he believed in the same Jesus. So I said, “If you believe in the same Jesus of the Bible then you would follow all of Jesus’ teachings. Do you believe in Celestial marriage for time and all eternity?” He replied, “yes.” I said, “If you were a true follower of Jesus’ teachings then you would know that Jesus condemned Celestial marriage.”
I showed him Luke 20:35, “But they which shall be accounted worthy to obtain that world, and the resurrection from the dead, neither marry, nor are given in marriage;”
I explained that the LDS celestial marriage disqualified him from the resurrection of life just as Jesus taught. He seemed somewhat shaken over this verse and the idea that Jesus didn’t approve of celestial marriage. He then turned his accusations on the Bible and said, “They say that the Bible is about 61% accurate.” I asked him, who are “they” are and he replied, “the LDS church.” So I asked him if he could point out the 39% of the Bible that was not accurate. He said that he could not. I asked if he could point out 20% or 10% or just 1% of the Bible that was not accurate, but he said he could not. I told him that the Apostle Paul warned people not to follow someone’s teachings without checking it out for oneself. “Paul said to be like the Bereans (Acts 17:l1) who checked out every thing Paul taught them through the scriptures.”
At that point, my friend Jeff was holding a sign with Moroni 10:32 written on it, so I asked this LDS man if he believed everything in the Book of Mormon. He replied with a hearty, “yes.” I asked if he believed Moroni 10:32 that stated you must deny yourselves of ALL ungodliness before grace will be sufficient for you. He replied, “yes.” So I asked him if he truly believed he could become sinless in this lifetime. He thought about it for a minute and then said, yes. I then asked him how that was working out and he replied that he had removed all sin in his life.
I asked him if he was sinless right now and he said, “yes.” This is the first time I have ever had an LDS person say they were sinless. So I paraphrased 1 John 1:8 & 10 by saying that he who says he has no sin makes God a liar and the truth is not in him. He just stared at me and then stomped off mad.
Little did I know that this guy only went a little ways off and then came back about five minutes later with a much gentler attitude and apologized for getting mad. I asked him why he said he was sinless when Romans 3:23 says that ALL have sinned and fallen short of the glory of God. He even admitted he knew Romans 3:23 so I said that you really don’t believe all the Book of Mormon, do you.
He did say he knows he can’t become sinless. I began sharing the gospel with him that it was by faith we are saved, not by our works. That we can never be good enough or do any good works on our own. I explained that good works are a product of our salvation, not a requirement for salvation. We had a great conversation about salvation and he listened intently but he just could not get past the part that he didn’t need to earn his salvation through works. Please be in prayer for all the folks that we talked to and who received tracts.
In His Grace and Mercy
