Christmas Eve at Palmyra, NY

I recently had the opportunity to visit the birthplace of Mormonism! It reminded me how much my LDS upbringing fostered my love of history, and it was an absolute thrill to finally visit the place which so thoroughly captured my imagination as a child. I grew up hearing the stories about Joseph Smith and his family, their hardships with farming and with illnesses, and most importantly their adventures surrounding those mysterious golden plates. So when I moved from the West to attend graduate studies in Central Canada, I had hoped for an opportunity to pay a visit to the little village in up-state New York where a lot of these events took place. This year my wife and I decided to spend our Christmas in Rochester – merely a half-hour drive away from Palmyra, NY, which became part of our itinerary. This was a chance not to be missed!

There are a number of Mormon history sites in and around Palmyra that have been preserved or restored for tourists’ enjoyment. We visited two sites: the Smith farm (with the Sacred Grove nearby) and the Hill Cumorah. Visiting on Christmas Eve day, we enjoyed the sites mostly to ourselves. We were the only ones in our tour group at the Smith farm, which was led by a pleasant and friendly senior sister missionary. You can learn about the historic sites here: http://www.hillcumorah.org/smithlog.php.

The light snowy weather provided a beautiful backdrop for this picturesque early 19^th-century historic site. After the guided tour we were free to wander through the Sacred Grove on our own, the place where Joseph Smith claimed he was visited by God and told of his role as prophet of the restoration. Walking among the snow-covered trees, I was moved to reflect upon my own spiritual journey. This place would have elicited a much different response from me in my youth – I once played the guitar and sang “Joseph Smith’s First Prayer” at an LDS church function. That song may have come to mind, accompanied by deeply-felt admiration for Smith. But in fact a very different song came to mind. It felt important to me to sing quietly to myself and to God “Amazing Grace (My Chains are Gone)” as I walked through that snowy grove. When once my tongue formed the words “Praise to the Man,” today they offer “the sacrifice of praise to God continually” (Hebrews 13:15).

Those who know me know that a few years ago I left the LDS church, for reasons described here. But my outlook toward the church today is not one of bitterness or antagonism; rather, I desire a continued friendly relationship and respectful discussion. As a born again Christian, I share the sentiments expressed by the apostle Paul toward the religion of his upbringing (the Pharisees): “Brethren, my heart's desire and prayer to God for Israel is, that they might be saved. For I bear them record that they have a zeal of God, but not according to knowledge. For they being ignorant of God's righteousness, and going about to establish their own righteousness, have not submitted themselves unto the righteousness of God. For Christ is the end of the law for righteousness to every one that believeth.” (Romans 10:1-4)

What a blessing it was to visit this little site, not only to see the place which inspired my imagination as a child but to see how far God has carried me since then. Once basking in the polished exterior of my own life and of my church, now broken in surrender at the cross. Hallelujah! God truly works in mysterious ways.

As always, thank you for reading, and God bless you!

Smith Family Log Home - December 24, 2013

Mormonism: A Jesus-Centred Faith?

The LDS Church recently came out with a new ad campaign called the “Introduction to Mormons” series (link here: http://www.mormonnewsroom.org/article/mormon-introduction-videos). Specifically, I'm looking at the video titled "What Mormons Believe." In the series, the people in front of the camera say things very similar to what I said when I was a believing Mormon speaking to non-believers. What interests me about this campaign is that it appears to be a campaign largely targeted at Christians. Some of the wording caused me to raise an eyebrow or two, especially the claim that for Mormons, “Jesus Christ is the centre of our faith.” Having been involved in both Mormonism and born again Christianity, I feel the need to highlight a few differences between what the LDS Church calls a Jesus-centred faith, and what we in the evangelical stream would call a Jesus-centred faith.

“We worship Christ”

I do not remember ever “worshipping” Jesus as an LDS person. I do not remember ever calling our services “worship” services (even though the church markets them as such to non-members) – we called them “sacrament meeting,” “priesthood meeting,” etc. I do not remember a tone of “worship” of Jesus. You will never hear a Mormon say “Praise God!” or “Hallelujah!” However, you will hear LDS hymns like “Praise to the Man” (referring to Joseph Smith). Sure, I have been to many LDS meetings where Jesus is referred to with gratitude and honour, but you will find a near equal measure of gratitude and honour for the church president, other leaders, and for Joseph Smith.

LDS friends and family, next time you’re in a testimony meeting you should try the following exercise. Make a chart kind of like the one below, and keep a tally of how many times someone expresses “worship,” gratitude, etc., for one of these things.

“I am so grateful for…”
Joseph Smith, for restoring the gospel	8
Latter-day prophets	7
The Book of Mormon	3
A particular church program (missionary work, welfare, young men’s, etc.)	4
A church standard (word of wisdom, food storage, etc.)	4
The pioneers	1
JESUS, for saving me from my sins and granting me eternal life by his grace and mercy!	?

The numbers on the side are just for example, but let me know what your results are! Then tell me whether you think that constitutes worshipping Jesus, because let me tell you – it is a completely different story in the evangelical churches I have attended. We cut out all that other stuff and focus completely on our Lord and our God, Jesus Christ. You may not care for contemporary style of evangelical worship services, but you must admit that the focus of our “worship” is completely different from what you find in a typical LDS church meeting.

“He is our Saviour”

Again, this statement begs for contrast with a Bible-believing born again congregation, because it means completely different things to each group.

For the LDS, every mortal person is “saved” by Jesus in that they will be resurrected to one of three kingdoms in the next life. But not everyone will live with God in the next life – in order to reach that degree of glory you must earn it through obedience to the laws and ordinances of the LDS church.

For the born again Christian, saying that Jesus is our saviour is a completely different thing. When I say that Jesus “saved” me, I mean that he paid it all so that I can live eternally with him in the next life. “Wherefore he is able also to save them to the uttermost that come unto God by him, seeing he ever liveth to make intercession for them” (Hebrews 7:25). He didn’t just save me a little bit so that I could try really hard to do the rest – he saved me all the way. Jesus paid it all.

Closing thoughts

LDS friends, I hope you get the chance to see what a Jesus-centred faith looks like to us Christians. We use many of the same words, but with very different meanings attached. Remember, it’s not the name on the building that matters, nor the whiteness of your button-up shirts, but whether or not you have been born again by the grace of Jesus. God bless you!

The Bible and Mormons

Dearest LDS friends/family,

As you may know, I grew up in the LDS church and I believed and loved its teachings. Today I have a profoundly different idea of Jesus’ gospel, and I have become a born again Christian! You can read about my conversion here: http://eph1-17.blogspot.ca/2013/05/a-journey-to-jesus-part-one.html. God has given me a heart for sharing his gospel with others, especially with the Latter-day Saints. The message I want to share with my LDS friends and family today is this: YOU can trust the Bible!

The Bible is one of the standard works of the LDS church, along with the Book of Mormon, Doctrine and Covenants, and Pearl of Great Price. But the Bible has a different status from the other books. As LDS Article of Faith #8 says, “We believe the Bible to be the word of God as far as it is translated correctly; we also believe the Book of Mormon to be the word of God.” (Emphasis added). The Book of Mormon says that the Bible does not contain the fullness of the gospel, but that it is missing many “plain and precious truths” (1 Nephi 13). The LDS bible dictionary says, “The Church reveres and respects the Bible but recognizes that it is not a complete nor entirely accurate record.” (See link for full reference: http://www.lds.org/scriptures/bd/bible?lang=eng&letter=b.) Whereas the Book of Mormon is proclaimed to be “the most correct of any book on earth,” the clause regarding the Bible as true “as far as it is translated correctly” has allowed the church to depart from what the Bible teaches and revise or downplay its teachings.

Joseph Smith recorded his own “Joseph Smith Translation” (JST) of the Bible, which altered and added to the text. You can see a selection of these changes provided by the LDS church here: http://www.lds.org/scriptures/jst?lang=eng. Many of these changes are minor, but some change the message that the Word of God conveys. For example, the John 1:1 that most Christians are familiar with declares Jesus’ status as the one true God, saying, “In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God” (John 1:1). (We know “The Word” means Jesus, because verse 14 says the Word was made flesh and dwelt among us, and goes on to describe his earthly ministry). Joseph Smith changed these words to say, “In the beginning was the gospel preached through the Son. And the gospel was the word, and the word was with the Son, and the Son was with God, and the Son was of God.”…Quite a difference! This is just one example of many changes which the LDS church justifies by saying the Bible is inaccurate.  

What did Jesus say about his word?

Jesus said, “Heaven and earth shall pass away, but my words shall not pass away.” (Matthew 24:35; Mark 13:31; Luke 21:33)

Woah! Let that sink in for a moment… If we trust what Jesus says here, that means his words are even more permanent than heaven and earth! Everything you see around you, the trees and mountains, the skyscrapers and highways, will all pass away… But his words shall not pass away. Would you read the Bible differently if you truly believed that?

Here is another example where the scriptures promise the permanence of God’s Word:

“For all flesh is as grass, and all the glory of man as the flower of grass. The grass withereth, and the flower thereof falleth away: But the word of the Lord endureth for ever. And this is the word which by the gospel is preached unto you.” (1 Peter 1:24-25)

The Bible is the word of God. LDS friends and family, I urge you to take this point seriously, because it may have eternal consequences. The Bible warns that spirits appearing as angels and apostles would preach “another gospel” to lead people away from what Jesus taught. “But though we, or an angel from heaven, preach any other gospel unto you than that which we have preached unto you, let him be accursed” (Galatians 1:8). How do you know if you’re following the true gospel or “another gospel” unless you know “that which we [the apostles] have preached unto you”? The only way to know that is to have a standard against which to judge new information. That standard is God’s word (the Bible). In fact, Isaiah stated that if spirits (and people visited by spirits) “speak not according to this word, it is because there is no light in them” (Isaiah 8:20). The Bible is the standard that keeps us from deception, so be careful how you regard it!

I urge you to read the Bible, not as a mish-mash of partially inspired and partially corrupted words, but as Jesus says we should read it: as His Word, which shall never pass away. Pray that God will open your eyes and ears to understand what HE wants you to know from the Bible, even if it differs from what men in your church want you to think. In the next blog post, I will explain what the Bible means to me now as a born again Christian. God bless you as you read his word!