It is easy to witness to a Mormon when he comes knocking at your door. You can show him the folly of his religion and extend the invitation to the true gospel in just a few simple steps. Here's how: 1. Ask the Mormon, "Where is your god?" The Mormons believe that their god, whom they call Heavenly Father, has a body. He is not a Spirit and not omnipresent. Therefore the Mormon god is limited to a single locale. Your Mormon friend will likely answer the question in one of two ways. I have found that they typically admit that they don't know. If this is his answer, you have already backed him into a corner: If you don't know where your god is, then he is a rather unreliable god. The Mormon may say that his god is in heaven. This is basically a way of avoiding the question. He will not likely give you the right answer (Mormons believe that their god lives on the planet Kolob. They know that this is ridiculous and will probably not want to "go there.") Whatever his answer may be to this first question, the point is that his god is not here. 2. Now ask the Mormon, "Did your god promise to never to leave us nor forsake us?" The Mormon will respond with and enthusiastic "yes." When he does, point out his inconsistency: The Mormon's god promised he would never to leave us nor forsake us, but he is not here. Your Mormon friend will try to dodge this dilemma by referring to the Holy Spirit. Don't let this scare you or throw you off track. Simply point out that we are not talking about the Holy Spirit. In Mormon belief the Holy Spirit is a different god; distinct from the one we are supposed to worship. Remind him that we are talking about Heavenly Father, the god they say we are to worship. Reinforce the folly of their religion: Heavenly Father supposedly made a promise to never leave us nor forsake us, but he is not here. Either Heavenly Father is a liar, or he is a false god that doesn't truly exist. Either way, Heavenly Father is not worthy of our devotion. 3. After pressing the inconsistency of their religion, be sure to explain how the Christian God fulfills is superior. Our God exists in all places. He fills the universe and is even outside of it because He is the creator of time and space. Most of all, He is right here with us at all times, fulfilling His promise never to leave us nor forsake us. 4. Call your Mormon friend to repent of his idolatry and turn to the only true and living God. If you would like, you can use these same steps to talk about Jesus. Colossians 1:17 says, "In him (i.e. Jesus) all things hold together." This is a reference to Jesus' divinity, which also has the attribute of omnipresence. All things throughout the universe retain their natural form because Jesus himself holds them together. If Christ would remove his presence, everything would completely fall apart like marbles without a container. Because Jesus is both God and man, he can fulfill his promise: Lo, I am with you always, even to the end of the age. The Mormon religion, just like any other false religion, contradicts itself and shows itself to be false. It impales itself and reduces to absolute absurdity. But this gaping hole in their religion is also a perfect door for the presentation of the gospel. Where their god falls on his face, ours shows Himself to be true.
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I just had some JW's come to my door. I have to say I enjoy the Mormons much more. The JW ladies lied to me, insulted me, and were not in the least bit interested in a back and forth interaction. They accused me of being "divisive" and unChrist like because I 1) called them out on their deception and 2) took them to Scriptures in their own Bibles that proved what they said was wrong.
If anyone should have thrown insults it should have been me. I pointed out various times how they lied to me and tried to use deceptive language about Christ in order to trick me. For instance, they first said that Jesus was god (making it sound like he is equal to the Father). Then they said that Jesus was just a god. Then they said that Jesus was not god (making it sound like he had no divinity at all). Then they said that Jesus was merely the Son of God. Well, which is it ladies? I'll tell you which it is: It is all a lie and you are intentionally trying to deceive. People who have truth need no use of cunning schemes and double talk. The truth is powerful enough and speaks for itself. I'll be meeting with my local mormon missionaries once again today. I typed up a synopsis of the foolishness of Mormonism that I have found and thought I would share it here (Printable version of the Folly of Mormonism).
Questions regarding epistemology (i.e. the nature of truth & its origin; or how do we know what we know?) 1. According to what you said, the nature of truth is subjective in that it needs to be confirmed by the Holy Spirit. So, we cannot know that 2+2=4 without the Spirit’s confirmation (i.e. burning in the bosom). You then said that 2+2=4 is “man’s truth” rather than God’s truth. My response is twofold: A) Is not all truth God’s truth? B) Is not man’s truth supposed to be opposed to God’s truth? And does that not make it by nature wrong? 2. Your religion is built on a verse of the Bible, James 1:5, which you say could be wrong because the Bible has been corrupted. You refute your own religion with your own Scriptures. Questions of a theological nature 3. In the “great apostasy” the word of your god supposedly became corrupted and thus needed to be corrected when J. Smith came along. This shows that your god was not able to preserve as perfect his own word (i.e. the Bible), and denies the fact that his word is supposed to “endure forever” (1 Peter 2:25) and be “perfect” (Psalm 19:7). This shows too that the “gates of hell did prevail” which Christ promised would not happen. Moreover, it reflects badly on your god, in that he allows man to make a mockery of his word (and what is supposed to be a perfect reflection of his character). 4. Where is your god? So far, you have not been able to give me a definite answer on this. The only semi-positive answer I’ve got is that he has a body and is somewhere. This, however, means he cannot fulfill the promise, “I will never leave you nor forsake you.” 5. Your religion cannot explain Col. 1:17, where “In him [i.e. Jesus] all things hold together.” Being that Jesus is limited to a body he cannot hold all things together (as a jar holds water together). Questions regarding metaphysics (i.e. the nature of the universe; what is the nature of reality?) 6. You cannot explain the philosophical dilemma known as “The one and the many.” How can we have two entirely different chairs (such as a desk chair and a lazy boy recliner) and still know that, despite their differences, they are both chairs. Christianity explains this easily with the fact that God himself is oneness and plurality. Questions regarding the Book of Mormon Regarding “the Testimony of Three” and “the Testimony of Eight.” Why do we need these testimonies? Why can’t all testify by going and reading the plates? Doesn't it seem shady that they were taken away? More than that, why must we trust a few sinful men who say they translated it? Why is your god so secretive about these things? If they are so important, should he not allow them to be accessible to all? The Christian Bible has thousands of copies of the original Greek and Hebrew. Comparing them reveals very few differences (all of which can be easily reconciled), and not one difference in the copies affects any one particular doctrine of the faith. Moreover, anyone can access it and understand them by normal processes (that is to say, they don’t need special glasses, all they have to do is learn the original languages). Today I met with some Mormons who wanted to talk to me since I "was interested in this kind of stuff." T'was a fun time to listen and tear down every lofty thing that exalts itself against the knowledge of Christ.
They gave me their pitch, and it went like this: 1. The church fell into apostasy after the apostles and men corrupted the Scriptures to gain power. 2. Joseph Smith looked to James 1:5, and prayed for wisdom. Whereby god gave him the revelation of Mormonism. Do you see the error? Mormonism makes a fatal slip: If the Bible is corrupted, how can Joe gain wisdom from James 1:5? That passage might have been corrupted! He put his trust in a word that is essentially wrong! The whole of Mormonism is built on James 1:5. But, according to Mormonism, James 1:5 cannot be trusted because the Bible is full of errors, has not been translated right, and is often not interpreted correctly. That's like saying, "There is a giant hole under that rug." Then you run over to stand on the rug. I asked these guys to consider the alternative, which is my Christian faith. I serve a God who will not let His Word be corrupted. He is powerful enough not just to have it inspired, but He is able to keep that truth free from defilement all through history. This word is holy and a reflection of His character. To allow it to be defiled would be to allow man to mock God. God's word says, "The grass withers, and the flower falls, but the word of the Lord remains forever." (Isaiah 40:8; 1Peter 1:24-5) Jesus himself said that heaven and earth would pass away, but "My word will not pass away." (Matt. 24:35). This past weekend I saw the newest batch of Mormon missionaries walking along the street. I immediately pulled over and was willing to risk being late to get home so that I could talk to them.
I began the conversation with my ritual question: Do you think you serve the greatest god? If I could show you a god who is greater, would you convert? To their credit, they didn't want to take the bait. One of them tried to dodge by saying that he believed only in the god who burned truth in him. The gist of the conversation went like this: Mormon: I only know truth if it is confirmed by the Holy Spirit. Me: Has the Holy Spirit subjectively confirmed that 2+2=4? Mormon: Not that I know of. Me: So 2+2 does not equal 4? Mormon: Maybe. I thank him for being epistemologically consistent. That only allowed me to show how foolish his worldview really is. Truth becomes quite slippery if it is subjectively confirmed in extra ordinary ways (i.e. burning in the bosom).* Eventually we did get to my original question. I then posed the challenge, "Where is your god?" I always like hearing their responses on this one. Since their god has a body, they ultimately don't know where he is. They may say, "In heaven," but they really are just guessing. Herein lies their dilemma: What comfort is a god who is not guaranteed to be near? Like Baal on Mt. Carmel, the god who isn't there doesn't answer prayer or aid you in your time of need. In contrast to this, to use the words of Francis Schaeffer, we serve the God "who is there." He is a Spirit (John 4:4) and omnipresent. Therefore he is never able to "leave us nor forsake us." [By the way, if they happen to give you grief about their "holy Spirit" being omni-present, just say, "I'm talking about the god you worship. You don't worship the "holy Spirit," do you? That's idolatry because the holy spirit in Mormon theology is a different god than Heavenly Father."] ________________________ *We believe that the knowledge comes only through the Holy Spirit too. However, we do not need extra-ordinary displays of the Spirit's presence to confirm it (i.e. burning in the bosom). God reveals all truth, for all truth is God's. Though the Spirit reveals it to us, it is always objective because it comes through the simple means of creation and/or His word. So, ultimately, truth is not left to the whims of our personal, inward experience. Had another great conversation with my neighborhood Mormons. I'm surprised that they are still walking down my street as I stop them (sometimes going out of my way to do so) and talk to them.
My tactic is to challenge them to think about who has the greater god, me or them. I ask them, "Where is your god?" This is a bit of a trick question for them because they don't ultimately know where it is. Their god(s), being confined to a body, can only be in one place at a time. So they assume that their god is in heaven. In any respect, after their answer I say, "My God is everywhere! Don't you think that He is the greater God?" (Just so you know, I haven't had anyone say, "Why yes. He is."). Having done that with this group of Mormons before, I asked them if they had thought about the Greater God. He said that they were not interested in him. I asked, "You are okay with a lesser god?" After this I started talking to them about Col. 1:17, where it says, "In him all things consist (i.e. hold together)." We talked about what that means. I illustrated it by saying that if you have a glass of ice water, the water consists in a cup (i.e. it is held together by the glass). If you were to remove the glass, the water would lose its shape and no longer consist or be held together. They agreed that this was a good illustration. I then asked how their god, being only in heaven, can be here now holding us together. It is impossible! Such a belief requires a God who is everywhere. If god were only in heaven, then we would not be held together. We would be like the water without a container. They tried to say that their god did it through the Holy Spirit. I pointed out though that the passage says, "In him all things consist," not "In the Holy Spirit." Both of the Mormons recognized that I was right. However, neither would admit it. I just pray that they would come to see that a puny god, such as theirs, is not a god who will serve them well or do justice I saw the Mormon bikes in the neighborhood, so I went for a walk to find them. I have the recording of the conversation we had below (~6 minutes). I wasn't able to get into the substance of my challenge because they were eager to get to another appointment. I did find it interesting that they barely could get past my initial question. I set up the challenge by asking, "Do you serve the greatest god?" If you listen, you can almost hear the puzzled look on their faces. |
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