Another Encounter with the Mormons
Two days ago I went on a crazy adventure. Jose and I piled into my car at about 9:30 am and trekked two and a half hours to Sacramento where a brand new Mormon Temple was being opened. For those who know nothing about mormon temples, they are completely off limits to the public, only after they're dedicated. So for two weeks they have an open house where they show off a bunch of the rooms inside. They advertise the whole temple to be open, but Jose and I both noticed at least one room that was completely blocked off that we never saw the inside of. I also heard stories about people asking about off limits rooms. The tour guides responded that they "didnt know" what the rooms were. Fat chance.
The temple is extremely beautiful, clean, and honored. It is considered sacred by the Mormons, as it is the literal dwelling place of God (That's interesting, I thought our bodies were God's temples?) Before actually taking a tour, we saw a video presentation about what is inside the temple, and some of the doctrines the Mormon church has concerning the temple practices. The movie was quite moving indeed - emotionally satisfying to most I'm sure.
That is, after all, the primary basis of the Mormon church's validity: the emotional satisfaction and assurance you get from praying about the truth of the Book of Mormon and receiving a testimony of the Holy Spirit. I'll be honest. This is all incredibly annoying.
I truly feel sorry for anyone getting duped by the Mormon church and everything it has to say. I don't mean to be condescending; I am simply disturbed by all the false teachings it puts forward, the false gods, the false Jesus, the false testimony. It is all completely convincing too! In fact, if I weren't a Christian with a knowledge of the truth, I honestly may have fallen into the trap myself. The whole production was well put together, the people were nice and excited, and the movie blended almost seamlessly the things everyone wants to hear with a little bit of religious practice involved to give the illusion of being spiritual. It is extremely family oriented too. They are all for that ideal fantasy of happily ever after - extending it even to eternity in heaven!
One speaker in the video even said, "heaven wouldn't be heaven without my wife and kids. And you may think thats wishful thinking, but for me..." etc., etc.
Wow. Just, wow. I wasn't sure what to do with myself after that. I was so stunned in fact that I missed the discreet reference to Heavenly Fathers (yes, plural) that Jose was able to catch. Man... what happened to loving Jesus first and foremost? Even hating your closest relatives and self in comparison (Luke 14:26)! What happened to considered EVERYTHING loss when compared with knowing Christ, suffering loss of all in order to gain Christ (Phil 3:7-8). Indeed, an especially sharp LDS member may read this and say, "Hey! you're taking that out of context! Paul is counting his works as rubbish, losing his leadership among the Jews to gain Christ." Yes, that is true, but the principle of Christ-high-above-all-else still stands, as does Luke 14:26. Not to mention the fact that Pauls exclamation completely destroyes the Mormons' idea of works-salvation. Why do you have to keep all the commandments in order to be saved if Paul considered following the law rubbish compared with knowing Christ? I have no idea!
The most common way a Mormon defends the truthfulness of his position is the "testimony" he has, which basically comes down to a "burning in one's bosom" or "feeling of assurance." These are all, of course, inadequate in discerning truth. The Bereans were commended for searching the SCRIPTURES to test PAUL, not their own hearts. Besides, "the heart of man is desperately wicked" (Jeremiah 17:9). I quoted this to one of the Mormons who insisted that I wasnt that evil and she immediately ended the conversation. Amazing, Mormons don't like to hear God's word preached truthfully. Sadly, neither do some Christians, and they should be totally and utterly ashamed. I cannot express how shameful and ridiculous it is for a Christian to not want to hear God's word. Does that even make sense? It almost makes me want to puke. But before you tell me that's "just a feeling," let me say that my feelings coincide with what God's word says, and THAT is why they're right, not the other way around as the Mormon church will tell you. Read Psalm 119 and it will become dreadfully obvious the importance of the role of God's Word in the Christians life, and the love with which the Christian cherishes said word.
Ok hopefully my tirade is ended. We'll see; I might slip into another; I can get pretty excited about these things. The fact is this, we(Christians) believe in that which is true, sound, and logical. It is historically verifiable to a reasonable extent. That is of course when referring to historically verifiable things. Events such as the virgin birth, Jesus walking on water, etc etc are not verifiable outside of eyewitness accounts, all of which we have in the Bible. Other things however such as coins referenced, livestock, plants, technology, wars, cities, and so forth, are all verifiable. The Mormon position is not so. Concerning coins, none have been found. Concerning technology, there are no traces of such an advanced civilization. Considering civilization in general, there is absolutely no trace - No, none, whatsoever, nothing - of large civilations such as the Nephites or Lamanites running around America having a jolly old time for a thousand years. There is a pivotal hill mentioned in the Book of Mormon, the location of which is actually known. Guess who owns it? Mormons! Guess who could dig it up and prove their stories of millions of people dying in one battle? Mormons! Guess who refuses to commence archaeological study on said hill! Mormons! Granted, not all mormons should be held responsible, but when leadership in your church refuses to take an excellent opportunity to add credibility to the faith, you must wonder why. I'll tell you why. They won't find anything. Out of the little they've done, they havent found anything, and they arent going to start again because it would be a terrible embarassment to the church. I sympathize. I wouldnt want to dig up a hill if I was fairly certain it would refute everything I put my faith in. No one wants to be disappointed like that.
The Bible however has the reputation of being historically verifiable. In fact, the Bible is even sometimes used as a guide in archaeology because of its demonstrated trustworthiness! Sounds like it has a much better track record than "the most correct book on the face of the earth." It is representative of real peoples and places, a book of plain, historic fact, communicated through contemporaries of the day. To them it wasnt history. There was no mystery. That's why they didnt get anything wrong. (That and they were inspired, which helps a little bit too ;-) ). Contrast that with Joseph Smith's book which popped out of nowhere getting almost everything wrong that he possibly could. I daresay it is a disgrace to man's God-given intellect. There's a fine line between things we don't understand, or take by faith, and those things that are clearly made up by a young man with an overactive imagination and a knack for wooing people.
We have certainty in what we trust in, not based on a feeling or what some nice person told us, but on the historicity of the pivotal event. The most important event in history is Christ's physical resurrection which actually happened in real time-space history. It actually happened, and the trustworthiness of the people telling the story can be verified, to a certain extent (Of course, anyone who doesnt want to be convinced by the evidence, wont be convinced by the evidence). Nevertheless, our faith is based on evidence. It is not blind, as some say it should be.
I love my Lord. Good thing He actually exists.
