Mormon Coffee

1. Even when I was an enemy to God, a child of wrath who was dead in sin, God opened the eyes of my heart and freely forgave my sins by faith alone. I remember explaining Ephesians 2:8-9 away, but God used Romans 4:4-5 to conquer my heart. It is stark, unmitigated, notorious grace. The kind that makes people uncomfortable and seems too good to be true. And the kind that changed my life. I was told to stop working as though godliness was a prerequisite for justification and start trusting the God who justifies the ungodly by faith apart from works. He counted me righteous even though I wasn’t, “transferred [me] to the kingdom of his beloved Son” (Colossians 1:13-14), adopted me and treated me like a son (John 1:12-13; Galatians 4:5), and gave me a security and a future in Christ (John 5:24; Romans 5:10-11; Romans 6:5).

2. Even when I find myself having fallen again into sin, God gives me an absolution and reassurance by helping me revisit some rock-solid truths. I am forever his, my future is in Christ. I was counted with the righteousness of Christ at conversion and was counted as righteous then as I ever will be. My identity is in Christ. He is my righteousness. “And because of him you are in Christ Jesus, who became to us wisdom from God, righteousness and sanctification and redemption, so that, as it is written, ‘Let the one who boasts, boast in the Lord’” (1 Corinthians 1:30). My life is hidden with him. “For you have died, and your life is hidden with Christ in God” (Colossians 3:3). He “raised us up with him and seated us with him in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus, so that in the coming ages he might show the immeasurable riches of his grace in kindness toward us in Christ Jesus” (Ephesians 2:6-7). “There is therefore now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus” (Romans 8:1). Satan wants me to sink into sin to avoid taking recourse in the gospel, but the apostle John reminds me, “If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness” (1 John 1:9). When my Father in heaven adopted me it was permanent. Sometimes I wander away from my home. But the door is always unlocked. He is always welcoming me back to restored fellowship with him. I once was a slave owned by my slavemaster, Satan, but I was bought at a high price by the Father—the blood of his son. “See what kind of love the Father has given to us, that we should be called children of God; and so we are” (1 John 3:1). “And because you are sons, God has sent the Spirit of his Son into our hearts, crying, ‘Abba! Father!’ So you are no longer a slave, but a son, and if a son, then an heir through God” (Galatians 4:8).

3. God has rendered certain the fulfillment of works by me which will bear witness to his work done in me. The Spirit of God will forever dwell in me and work in me “both to will and to work for his good pleasure” (Philippians 2:13). His help and enabling and strengthening are simply for the asking. I do not have to merit him or prove myself worthy of him. He is there forever with me. “And I will give you a new heart, and a new spirit I will put within you. And I will remove the heart of stone from your flesh and give you a heart of flesh. And I will put my Spirit within you, and cause you to walk in my statutes and be careful to obey my rules.” (Ezekiel 36:26-27) I can work hard at being holy and giving honor and glory to God in my body and life because I am forgiven, because the Spirit is with me and in me, and because I forever belong to Christ. “Not that I have already obtained this or am already perfect, but I press on to make it my own, because Christ Jesus has made me his own” (Philippians 3:12).

4. I love working with Bill McKeever and Sharon Lindbloom. Bill is a wise man who knows Mormonism well, loves the truth, and who presses on in the ministry. He is also a good friend. I never would have imagined two years ago that I would have the privilege of working with him. He is the best at what he does, and has in his ministry focused on substance and avoided vain sensationalism. Sharon is a dogged writer, always faithful to keep up the blog and keep up with current events. She’s an intelligent author and I think she should think about writing a book. I deeply appreciate these two people and their patience with me even when I keep missing deadlines.

5. All the bulldog countercult ministries and individuals who press on in their efforts to bring public clarity to the truth and privately reach the lost one person at a time. MRM is a drop in the bucket when one considers all that God is doing in larger Christendom to counter parasitic, counterfeit Christianity, and engage individuals on a personal basis with hard, negative truths about deceit and beautiful, simple truths about the gospel of grace. I thank God for groups like Concerned Christians, Institute for Religious Research, Watchman Fellowship, and Christian Apologetics & Research Ministry. I also thank God for individuals like Mark Champneys, Rob Sivulka, Chip Thompson, Rocky and Helen Hulse, and Russ East. There are so many more I could mention!

6. The internet and all the amazing ministry opportunities it provides. So many people are living lonely lives, either isolated as individuals or isolated as members of a highly closed community. It’s hard to penetrate the many communal and psychological walls around Mormonism. Thank God for the many avenues the internet gives us so that we can interact with Mormons and expose them to resources they otherwise would be embarrassed to receive into their hands on the streets of Salt Lake City in front of their friends or family. I thank God for blogs, content management systems, video sharing sites, learning platforms, voice-chat, text-messaging, and social networking web sites. I’m glad God has sculpted my life and given me life-experiences that wired me for web ministry.

7. God’s word. I love knowing I can hear the voice of a living God just by opening the Bible. I love that it decides manners of faith and practice more authoritatively and clearly than fickle feelings and PR-oriented “prophets”. I love the word of God for being faithful, always proven right and true, even through the most intimidating challenges. With David in Psalm 19 I say,

The law of the Lord is perfect,
reviving the soul;
the testimony of the Lord is sure,
making wise the simple;
the precepts of the Lord are right,
rejoicing the heart;
the commandment of the Lord is pure,
enlightening the eyes;
the fear of the Lord is clean,
enduring forever;
the rules of the Lord are true,
and righteous altogether.
More to be desired are they than gold,
even much fine gold;
sweeter also than honey
and drippings of the honeycomb.
Moreover, by them is your servant warned;
in keeping them there is great reward.

8. My Mormon neighbors in Utah. I thank God for you, my friends, for keeping a beautiful state safe and pleasant. Thank you for your neighborly kindness, for having been good coworkers, and for the pumpkin pie. Thank you for your friendship and conservative values and family-valuing culture. I pray that we can someday become more than just neighbors and friends in humanity, but friends and brothers in Christ. I want to sing to and worship and serve the same God together. Until then, know that I pray for you and thank God for the opportunity to peacefully live amongst you.

9. God is both infinitely big and intimately personal. I don’t have to be afraid that someday I’ll run out of something new to learn and enjoy about God. “For who has known the mind of the Lord, or who has been his counselor? Or who has given a gift to him that he might be repaid?” (Romans 11:34-35) God says of himself, “I am the Lord, who made all things, who alone stretched out the heavens, who spread out the earth by myself” (Isaiah 44:24). When God is asked for his name, he says, “I am who I am. Say this to the people of Israel, ‘I am has sent me to you.’” Millions in heaven sing, “Who will not fear, O Lord, and glorify your name? For you alone are holy. All nations will come and worship you, for your righteous acts have been revealed” (Revelation 15:4). May we say with Paul, “To the King of ages, immortal, invisible, the only God, be honor and glory forever and ever” (1 Timothy 1:17). Amazingly this all-powerful and all-knowing and all-sovereign God is intimately personal and close and indwelling.

“For thus says the One who is high and lifted up, who inhabits eternity, whose name is Holy: I dwell in the high and holy place, and also with him who is of a contrite and lowly spirit, to revive the spirit of the lowly, and to revive the heart of the contrite.” (Isaiah 57:15)

He is known by and knows his people, and he seeks to have a personal relationship with anyone who would come to him with a thirst for living water. “I am the bread of life; whoever comes to me shall not hunger, and whoever believes in me shall never thirst” (John 6:35). May we say with the Psalmist, “Whom have I in heaven but you? And there is nothing on earth that I desire besides you. My flesh and my heart may fail, but God is the strength of my heart and my portion forever” (Psalm 73:25).

10. My wife. She is my friend, lover, companion, helpmate, coworker, mother of our child, and a sister in Christ. She spiritually challenges me, overwhelms me with her beauty, supports me in my work, keeps a wonderful home, and is thoughtful about family traditions. I love her more every day, and I thank God that neither of us have to make the spiritual varsity team to spend eternity together with all our brothers and sisters in Christ!

Recommended Resource

• The Doctrine of God (Quicktime audio lecture by Bruce Ware)

When Mexicans plant a church in the United States

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What’s next for FLDS? (CNN video)

In an article posted last week on The New Republic web site (November 12, 2007), journalist Josh Patashnik took a look at Mitt Romney’s tendency to distance himself from LDS doctrine for the sake of his presidential campaign. Mr. Patashnik wrote,

“But seeking common ground with adversaries [i.e., evangelicals suspicious of Mormonism] doesn’t always endear you to your own side–particularly when animosity between two groups runs deep. At the most basic level, Mormons regard themselves as Christians and want others to do the same. But a recent Pew survey found that a plurality of evangelicals do not consider Mormons to be Christians. ‘I understand he [Romney] has to appeal to them for political purposes, but it makes me, as a Mormon, feel very, very queasy to see him doing it,’ says Greg Kearney, a computer programmer in Casper, Wyoming. ‘These people hate us, and they are so vitriolic–they think they get to decide who’s Christian.’”

Looking at Mr. Kearney’s statement, there are two things I would like to address. One is the charge that evangelicals hate Mormons. Hopefully, readers here know that this is an emotionally driven claim without basis in fact. Generally speaking, Evangelicals disagree with Mormonism, but we do not hate Mormons.

In the second half of Mr. Kearney’s statement he complains that evangelicals “think they get to decide who’s Christian.” I hear this criticism a lot from Mormons, and it does raise a question: Who should (or does) get to decide who’s Christian?

Most everyone has adopted a definition of some sort, including the LDS Church:

“Anyone who accepts Jesus Christ as the Son of God and the Redeemer of the world is a Christian, regardless of differences in theology.”

This LDS definition has a very different focus from another definition penned by SBC pastor Paul Cline. Many evangelicals would agree with this:

“Historical Christianity has a set of core beliefs that define it. Christianity has basic truths without which Christianity fails to be truly Christian. These basic truths have been the basis of true Christianity throughout the ages.”

So the Mormon definition disregards theology; the evangelical definition embraces it. Who gets to decide which definition is the right definition?

ReligiousTolerance.org notes, “Who is a Christian? A simple question, with many answers.” Even dictionaries can’t agree on a definition. Webster’s tries to cover all the bases with five definitions:

1. A person professing belief in Jesus as the Christ, or in the religion based on the teachings of Jesus.

2. A decent, respectable person.

3. having the qualities demonstrated and taught by Jesus Christ, as love, kindness, humility, etc.

4. Of or representing Christians or Christianity.

5. humane, decent, etc.

The Free dictionary says Christianity is,

A monotheistic system of beliefs and practices based on the Old Testament and the teachings of Jesus as embodied in the New Testament and emphasizing the role of Jesus as savior.

Perhaps a trustworthy definition is the one found in the Bible. In A Biblical Definition of Christianity I went through the scriptures systematically and came to this conclusion:

“What is a Christian?

“A Christian is a follower of Christ. A follower of Christ is one who does the will of the Father. The will of the Father is believing on Christ. Believing is not merely acknowledging, but trusting Christ alone for personal salvation. Personal salvation is being reconciled to God, having the promise of spending eternity in His presence.” (For support of this progression of logic, please see A Biblical Definition of Christianity.)

So are Latter-day Saints Christians? Are evangelicals Christians? It all hinges on the definition we accept. Who gets to decide?

We all can (and must) evaluate any belief system or religious leader, prayerfully examining their teachings and behavior. For those professing to believe the Bible, God’s Word is the standard by which judgment is made. In this way, we may discern truth from error regarding a prophet, a church or an organization. But this doesn’t tell us who is Christian; it tells us what is Christian in doctrine and action.

Ultimately, it is only God who decides who is a Christian, for He alone sees and knows our hearts.

On November 9th (2007) an article by Mathew N. Schmalz appeared in Commonweal Magazine. The article, titled “Meet the Mormons: From Margin to Mainstream,” discussed some interesting aspects of Mormonism, from Kolob to BYU. But one comment really caught my attention:

“Smith’s vision of the afterlife was also distinctive. It foresaw a place divided into three levels: the ‘celestial kingdom,’ for faithful Mormons and those who receive the full gospel of Jesus Christ in the hereafter; the ‘terrestrial kingdom,’ for less faithful Mormons and righteous non-Mormon ‘Gentiles’; and the ‘telestial kingdom,’ for murderers, adulterers, and apostates. In this tripartite scheme, those in the celestial kingdom labor to achieve ‘exaltation.’ Some Mormon prophets and theologians have speculated that those who attain exaltation become gods of their own planets and give birth to spirit children who pass from preexistence through corporeal life to the afterlife.”

Is this basic definition of the LDS doctrine of exaltation merely “speculation” from LDS prophets and theologians? Take a look at the teachings of LDS authorities throughout much of the history of the Mormon Church:

• “Each God, through his wife or wives, raises up a numerous family of sons and daughters; indeed, there will be no end to the increase of his own children: for each father and mother will be in a condition to multiply forever and ever. As soon as each God has begotten many millions of male and female spirits, and his Heavenly inheritance becomes too small, to comfortably accommodate his great family, he, in connection with his sons, organizes a new world, after a similar order to the one which we now inhabit, where he sends both the male and female spirits to inhabit tabernacles of flesh and bones. Thus each God forms a world for the accommodation of his own sons and daughters who are sent forth in their times and seasons, and generations to be born into the same. The inhabitants of each world are required to reverence, adore, and worship their own personal father who dwells in the Heaven which they formerly inhabited.” (Apostle Orson Pratt, The Seer, 37, March 1853)

• “Having fought the good fight we then shall be prepared to lay our bodies down to rest to await the morning of the resurrection when they will come forth and be reunited with the spirits, the faithful, as it is said, receiving crowns, glory, immortality and eternal lives, even a fullness with the Father, …Then will they become gods, even the sons of God; then will they become eternal fathers, eternal mothers, eternal sons and eternal daughters; being eternal in their organization, they go from glory to glory, from power to power; they will never cease to increase and to multiply, worlds without end. When they receive their crowns, their dominions, they then will be prepared to frame earths like unto ours and to people them in the same manner as we have been brought forth by our parents, by our Father and God.” (Second LDS Prophet Brigham Young, Journal of Discourses 18:259, October 8, 1876)

• “We are the offspring of God, born with the same faculties and powers as He possesses, capable of enlargement through the experience that we are now passing through in our second estate… He has begotten us in His own image. He has given us faculties and powers that are capable of enlargement until His fullness is reached which He has promised — until we shall sit upon thrones, governing and controlling our posterity from eternity to eternity, and increasing eternally.” (Apostle Lorenzo Snow, Millennial Star 56:772, October 5, 1894)

• “So far as the stages of eternal progression and attainment have been made known through divine revelation, we are to understand that only resurrected and glorified beings can become parents of spirit offspring. Only such exalted souls have reached maturity in the appointed course of eternal life; and the spirits born to them in the eternal worlds will pass in due sequence through the several stages or estates by which the glorified parents have attained exaltation.” (A Doctrinal Exposition by the First Presidency [Joseph F. Smith, Anthon H. Lund, Charles W. Penrose] and the Twelve, “The Father and the Son,” Improvement Era, June 1916, 942, quoted in Achieving a Celestial Marriage Student Manual, 131, 1976)

• “What do we mean by endless or eternal increase? We mean that through the righteousness and faithfulness of men and women who keep the commandments of God they will come forth with celestial bodies, fitted and prepared to enter into their great, high and eternal glory in the celestial kingdom of God; and unto them, through their preparation, there will come children, who will be spirit children. I don’t think that is very difficult to comprehend and understand” (Apostle Melvin J. Ballard, Three Degrees of Glory, 10, 1922).

• “An essential requirement for exaltation is celestial marriage, for exaltation depends upon the continuation of the family in eternity and the power to populate other worlds as our Father did this one.” (Principles of the Gospel, published by the LDS Church, 1976)

• “The Father has promised us that through our faithfulness we shall be blessed with the fullness of his kingdom. In other words, we will have the privilege of becoming like him. To become like him we must have all the powers of godhood; thus a man and his wife when glorified will have spirit children who eventually will go on an earth like this one we are on and pass through the same kind of experiences, being subject to mortal conditions, and if faithful, then they also will receive the fullness of exaltation and partake of the same blessings. There is no end to this development; it will go on forever. We will become gods and have jurisdiction over worlds, and these worlds will be peopled by our own offspring.” (Apostle Joseph Fielding Smith, Doctrines of Salvation 2:48, quoted in Achieving a Celestial Marriage Student Manual, 132, 1976)

• “Exalted parents are to their children as our Eternal Parents are to us. Eternal increase, a continuation of the seeds forever and ever, eternal lives — these comprise the eternal family of those who gain eternal life. For them new earths are created, and thus the on-rolling purposes of the Gods of Heaven go forward from eternity to eternity.” (Apostle Bruce R. McConkie, The Millennial Messiah, 23, 1982)

With prophets, apostles, a Church-produced student manual and a doctrinal exposition by the First Presidency and the Twelve of the LDS Church all teaching “that those who attain exaltation become gods of their own planets and give birth to spirit children who pass from preexistence through corporeal life to the afterlife,” I wonder how the Commonweal Magazine journalist came to think of this foundational LDS doctrine as “speculative.”