Posted on 12/27/2013 8:33:08 PM PST by Colofornian
...For eight years, I had been a professor at Brigham Young University...
I looked down on Christians...They had part of the gospel, but I had the fullness of it. I kept the laws and ordinances of Mormonism.
Three weeks before the end of his two-year mission, Micah called to tell us he was being sent home early—a horrific disgrace in Mormon culture. He had been reading the New Testament. There he encountered a different Jesus than the one I was taught about in Mormonism—a God of grace, not of works, so that no one can boast...
To a roomful of missionaries at his parting testimony, Micah had professed faith in Jesus alone and not the Mormon Church. He told them he had found a deep and genuine faith—one that didn't include Mormonism. It did not go over well. Church leaders told us that Micah had the spirit of the Devil in him, sent him home, and subsequently, back in Utah, invited us to bring him before the high council...
Micah pleaded, "Mom and Dad, please read the New Testament." We commenced. As I read, I became increasingly consumed by reading about the God of grace. I barely ate or slept. It's all I wanted to do.
...In John's gospel, I read, "These are the very scriptures that testify of me yet you refuse to come to me to have life." Salvation did not require the Mormon Church, only Jesus...
...on a chilly October evening in 2006, Michael and I settled in with Katie in our basement to watch the movie Luther. My heart pounded as I learned of the reformer's struggle against the Catholic Church. I seemed to be facing a similar struggle: Did I believe the Mormon system of obedience to laws and ordinances would secure my forgiveness?
(Excerpt) Read more at christianitytoday.com ...
...For eight years, I had been a professor at Brigham Young University...
I looked down on Christians...They had part of the gospel, but I had the fullness of it. I kept the laws and ordinances of Mormonism.
Three weeks before the end of his two-year mission, Micah called to tell us he was being sent home early—a horrific disgrace in Mormon culture. He had been reading the New Testament. There he encountered a different Jesus than the one I was taught about in Mormonism—a God of grace, not of works, so that no one can boast...
To a roomful of missionaries at his parting testimony, Micah had professed faith in Jesus alone and not the Mormon Church. He told them he had found a deep and genuine faith—one that didn't include Mormonism. It did not go over well. Church leaders told us that Micah had the spirit of the Devil in him, sent him home, and subsequently, back in Utah, invited us to bring him before the high council...
Micah pleaded, "Mom and Dad, please read the New Testament." We commenced. As I read, I became increasingly consumed by reading about the God of grace. I barely ate or slept. It's all I wanted to do.
...In John's gospel, I read, "These are the very scriptures that testify of me yet you refuse to come to me to have life." Salvation did not require the Mormon Church, only Jesus...
...on a chilly October evening in 2006, Michael and I settled in with Katie in our basement to watch the movie Luther. My heart pounded as I learned of the reformer's struggle against the Catholic Church. I seemed to be facing a similar struggle: Did I believe the Mormon system of obedience to laws and ordinances would secure my forgiveness?
LDS Cult ping!
“Salvation did not require the Mormon Church, only Jesus...”
Amen! May every Mormon at FR come to faith in Him alone this year.
Mormons correctly recognize that salvation is through a hierarchical church. This is plainly scriptural. The problem is that they are in the wrong church. Salvation is through the Catholic Church.
good grief, you lost twice, Joseph Smith was a loser and Martin Luther was a fallen away Cathoic priest....great choices you make in your journey to salvation...How about listening to CHRIST, Who established a church while He was here on Earth, and instructed us to follow it!!!!
ping
Oh no! I’ve had it wrong all these years I thought it was through Jesus Christ.
Acts 8:31
Jesus founded the Catholic Church so that, among other things, people would be able to understand His Word. Those who reject the Catholic Church reject the church that He founded.
Matthew 16:18
Ping for later reading.
John 16:13
It is my understanding that Jesus sent His Spirit to enable us to understand His Word; it is very liberating that the individual Christian has that same Spirit dwelling within.
Mormons are the staunchest conservative demographic...what’s the point of this post? If you want to spend time attacking a group of faith why don’t u go after the unitarian church, which has no problem having planned parenthood offices on their campus? Why are we driving a wedge between us and the most conservative demographic in the country?
Mormons are the staunchest conservative demographic...what’s the point of this post? If you want to spend time attacking a group of faith why don’t u go after the unitarian church, which has no problem having planned parenthood offices on their campus? Why are we driving a wedge between us and the most conservative demographic in the country?
Why don’t you get a roll of duct tape and try shutting up every ex-mormon personally to silence the truth about this cult? You can start with me.
I would be a Mormon even if I believed that Joseph Smith was not a prophet, since they were the first Church in 1300 years to re-establish God’s relationship with Jesus Christ to Biblical Primacy over the various tortured Creeds (Nicene,Apostles,Athenasian).
God is the literal Father of Jesus Christ .... not the 1st face of a god with a three-way personality disorder!
God does not need multiple personality disorder counseling!
Jesus Christ is the literal begotten Son of our Father in Heaven!
“Mormons are the staunchest conservative demographic...what’s the point of this post? If you want to spend time attacking a group of faith why don’t u go after the unitarian church, which has no problem having planned parenthood offices on their campus? Why are we driving a wedge between us and the most conservative demographic in the country?”
Because neither “faith groups” are legitimate, but are actually church organizations which teach damnable heresies which damns their entire flock.
Heresy isn't preaching falsehood, it's elevating one part of the truth to being the whole truth. In John 16, Christ is promising the Holy Spirit to guide the Church and teach Her. It is this Spirit which animated the Church to declare new doctrine in Acts 15 and to write the Epistles for conformity of faith.
You have taken a part of Scripture written for the Church collectively and applied it to every individual believer. Yet Scripture is clear Who has teaching authority...
1 Tim 3:15 but if I tarry long, that thou mayest know how men ought to behave themselves in the house of God, which is the church of the living God, the pillar and ground of the truth.The Bible doesn't point to Scripture as the final authority on truth. Scripture points to the Church.
2 Peter 1:20 knowing this first, that no prophecy of scripture is of private interpretation.
This seems an awfully strange thing to say if we are to read and understand the Scripture individually. Of course, history teaches the wisdom of this. As the false doctrine of Sola Scriptura has promulgated, factions have beget factions.
2 Peter 3:16 as also in all his epistles, speaking in them of these things; wherein are some things hard to be understood, which the ignorant and unstedfast wrest, as they do also the other scriptures, unto their own destruction.It isn't just hard to understand, wresting with Scripture arrogantly can lead to destruction. So many of the Protestant persuasion would say there can't possibly be any harm in reading Scripture alone. Scripture Itself bears a warning. If every believer is an authority on Scripture because of the indwelling of the Holy Spirit, then the Spirit can't hold a coherent thought. How can we possibly profess one Spirit in one Faith when we fractalize the Church through private interpretation. To paraphrase "The Incredibles"... if everyone's in charge, then no one is.
“I would be a Mormon even if I believed that Joseph Smith was not a prophet,”
You’d be surprised how many Mormons there are who don’t believe in Joseph Smith, but still remain a part of their religion. It’s hard to believe in a bigamist and pedophile, but it’s harder to be cut off from your family and community.
“God is the literal Father of Jesus Christ .... not the 1st face of a god with a three-way personality disorder!”
Says the silly polytheist who thinks there are three gods, and that, if he is good enough, he will also become a god of his own planet:
“Is there a God beside me? yea, there is no God; I know not any” (Isaiah 44:8)
“before me there was no God formed, neither shall there be after me.” (Isaiah 43:10)
I guess you should amend your statement “Even if I believed Joseph Smith was not a prophet, and believed in the Bible, I would still remain a Mormon despite them.”
Jesus told us He and the Father are One. When we see Him, we see the Father. In the opening lines of John's Gospel, we read of God and the Word of God Who is God through Whom all has been created. Throughout Scripture, we read of God's Spirit active through the Prophets and Apostles.
It is a great mystery... but it is not worthy of your derision.
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