Higher Things — Answering the Knock
Many of you may think that Higher Things is a great organization, but it’s oriented towards the youth so you don’t necessarily keep up with their publications. In case you missed it, their Spring 2012 issue was dedicated to Apologetics. The below article is an example of the other excellent articles from the magazine. It’s well worth your time to review their publications and support their organization. A 1-year subscription to the Higher Things Magazine is $18 annually, or $15 annually when purchased in quantities greater than five. Or, you may donate online or join the Dare to the Lutheran monthly giving club. Thrivent members may designate their choice dollars to Higher Things.
Confessing the faith means more than giving a defense just to unbelievers. What if you encounter someone who believes but believes in something false? In this week’s Apologetics Issue article, Pastor Kuhlman teaches us how to react when the Mormons come knocking.
Rev. Brent W. Kuhlman
There they are! You spot them. White shirts. Black ties. Handsome young men. Sometimes they’re lovely young girls. They come in pairs. Walking down your street. Or riding bicycles on the sidewalk. Walking right up to your house! Then to your door. The doorbell rings. You open the door. And the first words out of their mouth are: “Hello, we’re from The Church of Jesus Christ of the Latter-day Saints (LDS).” Mormons! (note 1)
Be warned! They don’t come a knockin’ to chat about the weather or about how nice your house is. They are on a mission! A very dark mission to turn you from the Christian faith. To get you to deny your baptism. To deny the holy Trinity. To get you to trust in what you do or don’t do perfectly for “salvation.” To get you on the road to becoming a god yourself! (note 2) And it all starts with that opening greeting at the door: “We’re from The Church of Jesus of the Latter-day Saints.” Their official name reveals a great deal of what Mormons believe. Let’s break it down.
When they say “the” church, the emphasis is on the definite article. It means exactly what it says! “The” means “only.” As in the one and only church that exists on the earth. Seriously! No joke! They’re part of it. You’re not. That’s why they are there at your door. That’s right. I said it. And it bears repeating. Mormons believe that they are the only true church on the earth.
Mormons believe that true Christianity went the way of the dodo bird or the dinosaurs (extinction) shortly after the death of the apostles. Up until 1820 the church of Jesus Christ did not exist! Really? For all those centuries Christianity didn’t exist? That’s right! That’s the entire point of their greeting.
Therefore, the Mormon god of this world, heavenly Father, who was once a man like we are, together with his son the Mormon Jesus, got the true church of Jesus Christ cranked up once again in 1820. It happened when a young man named Joseph Smith was praying in the woods to find out which denomination was true. Supposedly, that’s when Heavenly Father and Jesus show up in a vision and declare (and I paraphrase): “Joseph! All the denominations on the earth are false! We’re going to restore the true church again in these latter days! And we’re going to use you to do it! Mormonism is Christianity! Christianity is Mormonism! Now get to work! Spread the news!”
Then, in 1823, according to Latter-day Saint history, Joseph Smith received a visit from Moroni, the son of the prophet Mormon. Moroni revealed ancient gold plates that were written in the language of Reformed Egyptian (no such language, by the way). Smith is said to have translated the golden plates with a seer stone. The translation is the Book of Mormon, another supposed testament of Jesus Christ.
Bottom line: This is exactly why the Mormon missionaries are after you! In order to truly be a Christian you have to convert to Mormonism. You have to become a member of The [one and only] Church of Jesus Christ of the Latter-day Saints! Do not be fooled! Do not be deceived! Mormonism is not Christianity! Christianity is not Mormonism! Not even close! First, officially the LDS denies the Trinity even though they use the same terms as “Father, Son, and Holy Ghost.” When Mormons say Father they usually mean “Heavenly Father” (one of millions of gods)–the only God for this world. Did you catch that? Only for this world! That, of course, implies that there are other divinities with their own worlds and your goal as a Mormon is to achieve such godhood and have a world for yourself!
Second, do not be deceived when Mormons speak of Jesus. He is a different Jesus than the Bible teaches and the Creeds faithfully confess. For Mormons, Jesus is the first spirit child of Heavenly Father and that Satan is also his spirit brother. In addition, they believe that Jesus was conceived by Heavenly Father through physical relations with the virgin Mary and that Jesus married several women in his life. When Mormons speak of Jesus as their Savior or Redeemer they usually are working with three definitions: 1) Jesus did not do everything for your salvation but he did conquer physical death; 2) Jesus paid your debt and he is very patient with you as you work very hard to pay him back in full by your obedience to Mormon teachings (e.g. married in the temple, doing your mission, proxy baptisms for the dead, moral living, etc.), and 3) Jesus is your example, i.e. he shows you how to save yourself (become a god)!
Christianity is just the opposite. God is one divine being or essence (Deut. 6:4; 1 Corinthians 8:4; John 10:30). God is three distinct persons (Psalm 2:7; John 10:30; 15:26; Galatians 4:6; Matthew 28:19-20; 2 Corinthians 13:14; Matthew 3:16-17). Trinity! Triune! Three persons–one God! One God–three persons: Father, Son, and Holy Spirit!
Jesus was conceived by the Holy Spirit when Gabriel preached the divine word into Mary’s ears (Matthew 1:18-25; Luke 1:26-38). He is the only-begotten Son of the Father from eternity (John 1:1, 14, 18; 3:16; Romans 8:32. Jesus alone does the salvation verbs in Scripture. God was in Jesus reconciling the world to Himself (2 Corinthians 5:19). It is only the blood of Jesus that cleanses us from all sin (1 John 1:7). Faith only in the crucified and risen Jesus is what saves sinners (John 3:15-16, 36; 6:29, 40; 11:42; 20:31; Romans 1:17; 3:21-28; 4; 5:1-2; Galatians 3:11, 26; Ephesians 2:4, 8).
In addition, Jesus promised that not even the gates of hell would prevail against His church (Matthew 16:18). The church has always been around! Wherever the Word is taught in its truth and purity and the sacraments are administered according to Christ’s mandate and institution, the Lord Jesus is sustaining His church.
Finally, because of what Jesus has done for you and for your salvation, you are content to be creatures. We reject the satanic temptation to be like God (Genesis 3:5)! The Lord has good use for you as a human in service for your neighbor–even if that neighbor is a Mormon. And that can begin by replying: “Well hello there! I’m a died for and baptized Christian! Come on in and let me tell you about Jesus and his church to which I belong!” (note 3)
1 ”Mormon” is the name of a prophet in the Book of Mormon. Joseph Fielding Smith, a Mormon prophet, stated: “we should all emphasize, that we belong to The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, the name the Lord has given by which we are to be known and called,” (Book of Mormon Manual, 126).
2 The Mormon terms of “exaltation,” “gaining eternal life,” and “having an eternal family” are synonyms for a Mormon’s ultimate goal: godhood! The essential text that teaches this goal is Doctrine and Covenants 132:19-20. One of the first things that a Mormon child learns is this couplet: “As man now is, God once was; As God now is, man may be,” (The Life and Teachings of Jesus & His Apostles, 59).
3 To help you to witness to Mormons see ?Mark J. Cares, Speaking the Truth in Love ?to Mormons (Milwaukee: Northwestern Publishing House, 1993).
Rev. Brent W. Kuhlman is pastor of Trinity Lutheran Church, Murdock, NE. He can be reached at kuhlman.brent@gmail.com
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Having read into a variety of the militant anabaptist sects of the 1500s and onward, their penchant for practicing the prophetic gifts of divine revelation. Endless daniel/revelation interpretations, knack for getting the trinity and other things wrong etc. They have the belief that they must setup the Kingdom of God on earth in advance of the second coming, and do so militantly ( in the original forms of the belief ) and their millenial beliefs. The usual polygamous tendencies which were so strong that when in the 2nd marriage of Philip of Hess the author of the authorization was careful to differentiate that they were not polygamous anabaptists. No infant baptism etc. Positions on deity of Christ ranging from orthodox to outright denial. So on and so forth…..
Lately reading a lot of Mormon stuff…. One thing that struck me was their substantial talk of “office of the keys” which you don’t find in any writings outside of German Protestant/Lutheran circles. They assert they obtained the keys from Peter James and John when they personally appeared and ordained Joseph Smith. You find in fringe songs laments like “the pennsylvania dutch isn’t spoken any more”… actually lots i could observe but space is short.
Mormonism is substantially a resurgence of the militant anabaptist ideas, particularly german militant anabaptist ideas, that was driven underground by both Catholic and Lutheran princes in Europe. To that core it has all sorts of baggage from other things too. It was uniquely shaped by a blend of all sorts of things by Joseph Smith. These militant ideas appear to have crossed the Atlantic with an influx of immigration from those regions of Europe prior to the rise of Mormonism. I speculate these ideas existed in writings that have never made it into English and/or orally. The basis for this is purely the strong parallels of the ideas, you can’t trace the who talked to who etc. But to me its inescapable.
To reach this understanding you first have to be very familiar with Lutheran, Anabaptist ideas and then read heavily into Mormonism. Most evangelicals won’t reach this conclusion as they are essentially Baptists and therefore anabaptists also have to be good therefore Mormons can’t be a branch of anabaptists.
I may be wrong but the parallels when you spend a lot of time in each of these branches is quite strong.
A good decade ago, two LDS missionaries came to our door. I stepped out on the front porch and chatted with them. 2 and a half hours later, they left with an invitation to come talk with me more in my office, and I left with the stunning bit of news from them that the serpent, Lucifer, was actually telling Eve the truth–”You shall be as gods….” I’d never seen someone so totally open about that as their true teaching. In the conversation, I tried to get at the question of where their certainty comes from–another very interesting issue. the sad and dangerous thing is that it boiled down to the foundation for a lot of “evangelical Christians”–”I just know it in my heart” “I had a moment of ‘enlightenment’ where I just knew that this was true!” and the like.
No. We preach Christ crucified. And that most certainly includes preaching the bodily, historical Resurrection of the Crucified. Our faith grasps onto something “extra nos”–outside of ourselves, something that is true whether we believe it or not, and *therefore* it’s worth believing. Objective must *always* be the ground for subjective, or subjective becomes nothing more than faith in one’s self, ala that Mormon missionary, and that is simply to return to the original Lie in the Garden.
I told those two men that if either of them ever found themselves *un*certain because they were resting their “faith” upon themselves, my door was always open to them, and I would talk further with them about the *unique* Son of God who *is* the one, unique, true God, who became flesh and died for all of us. Unfortunately, I haven’t ever seen either since.
@Bitznbitez #1
Anabaptist foundation with a *whole lot* of borrowed Masonry mixed in.
After the Mrs. helped the President of the LCMS preach his “sermon” to the youth at the official gathering, I looked for alternatives for my children. After attending Higher Things for the past two years, they now beg to go. It has become our annual family vacation — we all love it! My children now love THE liturgy and classic Lutheran hymnody. And they can spot false and even vacuous “doctrine” a mile away. When Daddy said it, it was easy for them to dismiss it as my opinion, but when they heard it from the guy up front at Higher Things, they listened eagerly for the Gospel, then checked the Scriptures to see what he said was true. My 18-year-old was the first to recognize that what I preach is what they preach. Unprompted, she expressed gratitude for being a Lutheran, where “you can trust that Lutheran pastors teach the same Gospel.” At least at Higher Things…
Yes a *whole lot* of stuff added borrowed etc. Has anyone ever seen anything that explores that anabaptist foundation and what they may have borrowed from it ? I have seen some suggestion that their cosmology shows strong signs of Swedenborgian influence. Are there any books etc. about this narrow portion ? Most are simply “they are a cult” and “they don’t believe in the trinity” and such. I’m more interested in where the ideas flowed from militant anabaptist groups academicaly than who is right / wrong. And the whole masonic connection, while true and interesting, isn’t the the area I’m trying to understand. Probably very little on that out there.
Back in the dark ages (or so it feels) of 2004 I attended a sectional at Higher Things on Mormonism by Kuhlman. I don’t remember all the specifics but he pretty much talked about the same stuff written here. I think the best reply that I’ve heard someone give to a Mormon is simply “I’m a Trinitarian” which caused them to turn tail quickly enough.