An honest look at Mormonism - a balanced presentation

Two Mormons showed up on my doorstep again. Really. I was friendly. They were friendly. I told a Mormon joke. They said they tell Mormon jokes to each other. I asked to hear one. They told me, "Why do you want to take two Mormons with you camping, and not just one?" I dunno. "Because if you take just one, he'll drink all your beer!" I was in a chat room with Mormons for a couple years. I pointed out that there were 4,000 errors in the Book of Mormon, and that there wasn't a single shred of evidence for the huge cities written about therein, as opposed to bountiful archaeological evidence for the Bible. A historian of the church said, "That's right. There is no evidence for the Book of Mormon. You must accept it all on faith." 

I watched the PBS series, "The Mormons," which is a balanced view of the good, the bad and the ugly. Professors at Brigham Young University went to LDS leaders and told them the history they were told to teach was bogus. The professors were excommunicated. Interviewed later, in tears, they said they missed the community. One ex-Mormon bishop told me Satan informed him which houses on a block would be vulnerable to the Mormon message. This former bishop told me that Satan tells 20 truths to plant just one lie. 

I ask just one thing. Before you react to this post, please view all three videos to get a fuller perspective.
The series is here.

Short Animated

Longer Animated

I don't approve of him, but I love him.

"There's someone that I love, even though I don't approve of what he does. There's someone I accept, though his thoughts and actions revolt me. There is someone I forgive, though he hurts the ones I love the most. And that person is me. There are plenty of things I do that I don't like. But if I can love myself without approving of all I do, I can also love others without agreeing with all that they do. And as that truth has been absorbed in my life, it has changed the way I view other people."

You, yes you, skeptic, already knew God

We have no excuse. God revealed Himself throughout nature. We have no excuse.

Complexity of the eye and brain 

You must suppress evident truth to believe otherwise.

Love truth or relish wrath?

                                   How did this apply to you, the skeptic, who once knew God?

You replaced Him with the god of Self

Worshiping the created instead of the Creator. Am I missing something? 

Please tell me what sense that makes!

Unity, liberty, charity - what about a portal?

The heart of Romans 14-15 is captured in this great and fairly well-known statement:

 

In essentials unity;

In non-essentials liberty;

    In all things charity.

 

I just don't want to get wrapped around the axle over minor issues that don't make any difference.

 

In his excellent book, Deadline, Randy Alcorn speculates that one of his characters, having arrived in Heaven, is told by his guardian angel on rare occasions to look through a portal to a special happening or a target of God for salvation on earth. 

A friend argued equivalently that "there are no portals."

 

I think we get too dogmatic over items that have no bearing on our conduct. 

 

I asked my friend how she can be so sure.

 

"Because it's not in the Bible."

 

There are a lot of things not in the Bible that are nonetheless true: the word "Trinity" comes to mind.

 

Hymn: 

Softly and tenderly Jesus is calling
Calling for you and for me
See on the portal He's waiting and watching
Watching for you and for me.

 

Come home, come home
Ye who are weary, come home
Earnestly, tenderly Jesus is calling
Calling, all sinners come home. 

The Big Lie

Thinking more about my previous post about what to do if an atheist objects to my praying in public, I think also I would like to lovingly invite this woman to a meal/discussion about what makes one upset about another's point of view. I would ask her if she would welcome a way to enjoy a peaceful resolution and a way to calmly resolve any dissonance in her life. The way I have found best is abiding in Christ moment by moment.

On another point, I always wondered why skeptics seem to get a lot of their information from comedians and movie stars, and boldly affirm their deeply held convictions by electing Jesse Ventura, Al Franken and Marion Barry. What qualifies Bill Murray to claim special knowledge on the other 99-plus percent of all the knowledge in the universe that is undiscovered by him?

Going online, I see lots of arguments on both sides of "who killed most people, religion or atheists?" Stalin, Pol Pot and Hitler killed more people than so-called Christian crusaders (who were responding to Muslim aggression). I find online defenders of atheism who say those evil men didn't kill "in the name of atheism." This is parsing words. In one respect they are right. Stalin didn't kill while hollering, "Atheism is Great!"

But peel the onion and search for what lurks in the hearts of evil men. Do you find killers who devoutly seek to abide in Christ moment by moment?  No. I find in evil men a huge vacuum. No God. Or an idol replacing God.

I am something of a skeptic myself. Friends have encouraged me to challenge sources, even of supposedly Christian origins. Here's an example. While names were changed to protect the innocent to guilty, the principle is valid:

Einstein or someone else?

As for setting science back 1,000 years, I defer to my dear friend, Gus Broffitt, a former skeptic and head scientist at Allison. He found Christ in a dramatic way, studied the creation accounts and found that they didn't conflict with any scientific findings. His brother was head of the mathematics department at Ames (Iowa) College. Gus asked him to run the numbers for the probabilities of over 300 prophecies of Christ coming true, as they have. The brother found the odds were astronomical and, as a result, he also became a believer.  Dr. D. James Kennedy found it quite interesting that most branches of science and mathematics (e.g., Newton and Pascal) were founded by Christians.

My respected Bible teacher, Carl Johnson, pointed me to Hugh Ross and  Reasons to Believe from a scientific perspective.

Ultimately, I like what one atheist said: "I'm not a Christian, but I want to live next door to one." I'm dabbling in a writing project called "Safe Sects." Living next door to a committed Christian is enjoying the safest neighbor. With wars and rumors of wars, I want to stick with someone who abides in Christ...moment by moment.

My bottom-line, default approach: Micah 6:8 -

He has shown you, O mortal, what is good.

And what does the Lord require of you?

To act justly and to love mercy

and to walk humbly with your God.

What would you do if an atheist challenged your right to pray in public?

CLICK HERE FOR VIDEO

Me? I would hope I could respond in love, perhaps offering to buy her meal and inviting her to chat with some questions: 1. Why does it make her uncomfortable? 2. If other atheists can practice tolerance, what blocks hers? 3. If prayer in public was practiced for centuries, why is it a fad to practice intolerance now? 4. Is her position a proven fact or a belief? 5. Why should her belief take precedence in public and not mine? 6. Has she heard atheist Andy Rooney's take? When he is in the Middle East he isn't bothered by a Muslim prayer, and accordingly, he isn't bothered by a prayer at a football game. 7. If you were wrong about atheism, would you want to know? And yes, if I were wrong about my beliefs, I would certainly want to know. 8. Would you care to hear of some of the scientific and logical evidence behind my beliefs? 9. Would you like to come to our home to learn more? 10. If you were to die today, what would happen to you? 11. If you died and discovered Jesus saying to you, "Why should I let you into my Heaven?," how would you answer? 12. Did you know that there are two ways to go to Heaven? a. Accept Jesus' offer of his gift to take my punishment on the Cross for my sin; or b. Live a perfect life. Which appeals to you? 13. Have you investigated the overwhelming evidence for the Resurrection of Jesus? 14. Have you ever told a lie? 15. Have you ever stolen anything? 16. Did you know that Christianity reaches out to the whole word? For God so loved the world that He gave His only Son, that whoever believes in Him shall have eternal life. John 3:16 17. How much do you know of all the information there is to know in the universe? Let's say you know 1%. Could God be in the other 99% you don't know? 18. Would you consider accepting the love and forgiveness of your own personal Savior? If so, repeat after me, but only if you sincerely mean it: "God, if you really exist, I accept your gift offer. I'm taking a small step of faith in accepting Your Son Jesus as my Savior and Lord. Jesus, forgive my sins and transform my life. I understand that you do not promise an easy life, but since you now live inside me, you will see me though any situation and give me love and joy in the midst of sorrow and hope beyond my imagination. I praise you for putting me here and now with a purpose and I look forward to blissful, everlasting life with you. I want to know you more and more by reading your Word, by serving and fellowship with other believers. In the Name of Jesus I pray, Amen." If you prayed this prayer, message me on Facebook or email me and let's talk some more about your abundant life going forward.

The mind-blowing, out-of-reach understanding of eternity

THE INCREDIBLE MR. ETERNITY: Every once in awhile I am aroused gasping from a half-sleep stunning fright awareness of the length of eternity. DO NOT MEDITATE ON ETERNITY. IT WILL DRIVE YOU MAD. (OK, now you will try. STOP IT.)  I give up. Asking someone to stop thinking about eternity is like asking someone to don't think about a pink elephant. No use, and so I will tell you my cure: I resolve this by remembering that I could have been created as a person, or even a tse tse fly, sitting on an ant hill in Ethiopian 4,000 years ago. Because the Ancient of Days put me here...and now...means that He has conquered eternity and allowed me to win the timeless lottery. O my. Breathtaking. So, what, do you ask, does this have to do with Mr. Eternity? Mr. Eternity was one of the greatest evangelists. As my friend, Jack K, would appreciate, he didn't buttonhole people. He simply wrote "Eternity" on sidewalks and restaurants wherever he went. My brother Ivan, from Australia, told me about him. On Y2K, the famous bridge in Sydney, where I visited, emblazoned the word "ETERNITY" across the fiery lights on New Year's Day, Jan. 1, 2000, to honor Mr. Eternity. He was anonymous for years until discovered. Many people then told him they had embraced Jesus because of the word he wrote all over Australia.

Me? My concept was too small. Consider 2 ideas: the ring has no beginning nor ending; and time is a man-made idea. God is not bound by time. Eternity is NOW. There's no tomorrow or yesterday. You live in the NOW.

Two wonderful reads:

THIS 
and, of course, HERE






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