Mission to the LDS, at the Mormon Miracle Pageant.

[Trout]

Here is the July newsletter from a missionary friend of mine, I thought some might find it interesting.

July 1, 2004

Dear Family and Friends,

June is always the busiest month I have for ministry. This is because of the Mormon Miracle Pageant in Manti (a small town right in the center of Utah). This year the pageant was from June 17th - 19th and 22nd - 26th. This event is an outdoor play performance of the early formation of the Mormon Church and some stories from the Book of Mormon, and it takes place on the grassy slope just outside the Manti Temple. It draws thousands of LDS there each night, but it also draws hundreds of Christian evangelists from all over the country! The gates open at 6 p.m., and many try to grab a good seat. Now the pageant doesn't start for 3 and a half hours later, so many will come out and talk with us Christians on the street that is blocked off to automobiles. We would also pass tracts out and hold up signs (all my signs are web sites). Then about the last half-hour before the pageant began, I would begin walking around the gate preaching to the crowds. Usually I would have two teenage brothers, Daniel and Taylor, from Branson, MO walk with me and hold up signs while I preached. The cops and pageant security workers would also walk with me to make sure LDS people didn't get out of line. This was completely different from last year when they actually dragged me off the sidewalk for preaching (you can see 3 pictures of this beginning by clicking here)!

This year, on the very first night, we had Christians disrupting our preaching and witnessing! There was a group from a Christian college that actually reinforced the LDS belief of how Christians are all divided and can't get along. (This is caricatured in the very opening of the pageant!) This happened not just to me but to another friend of mine, Allen (my web master who was staying with me for the month). One guy said to the crowd I was witnessing to that I was totally un-Christ-like, and that he was an Evangelical, who knew that Christ would be about taking these guys out for dinner and showing them love and peace. Then this guy went around to different members of my crowd and started shaking their hands and telling them "love" and "peace".

This was sickening. I'm all for relational evangelism; I do it myself. But these guys need to stop messing up what we really feel called to do. There are different ways of doing evangelism given what's required for the specific situation. If these guys want to be so limited that they simply concentrate on building a handful of friendships, then that's their business. But these guys need to cut their more confrontational brothers and sisters some slack, and pray for them and encourage them when they want to follow another aspect of Jesus', the prophets' and apostles' ministry in getting the word out to the masses, many of whom will naturally be quite angry.

These sorts of "relational evangelists" have a basic problem, viz., they think of love as identical to friendship. So it's inconceivable for them to love without being friendly. But is friendship with the world really the supreme good? Aren't there more important things than friendship? If there aren't, then this friendship is in fact "hostility toward God" (James 4:4). These relational evangelists have no room for sometimes "[a]nswer[ing] a fool according to his folly, lest he be wise in his own conceit" (Proverbs 26:5). They have no room for Elijah mocking the prophets of Baal. And they even have no room for Jesus (Love incarnate) humiliating His opponents (Luke 13:17). These relational evangelists are consumed with everyone liking them and speaking well of them. But Jesus says woe to them, since that's what the people in the Old Testament did to the false prophets (Lk. 6:26). Walter Martin used to put it this way: "You aren't here to win popularity contests!"

These relational evangelists have been socialized by their culture to provide the material content for the formal principle of love. In other words, they naturally see someone screaming the law and offering the gospel as the means of escaping the impending judgment of "an angry" God as unloving. Certainly, a truly loving person would never do such a thing! Instead, if the individual wants to truly love, then she would do the type of things that make everyone feel good about themselves. Speaking of telling sinners simply that God loves them, noted pastor and preacher Ray Comfort said,

The message is more appealing to both the Christian and the sinner. It is certainly easier to speak of love than to speak of sin. Many years ago, before I understood the function of God's Law, I told a prostitute of God's love and was delighted that she immediately began weeping. Unbeknown to me, her tears were not tears of godly sorrow for sin, but merely an emotional response to the need of a father's love. In my ignorance, I joyfully led her in a sinner's prayer. However, I was disappointed some time later when she fell away, and her tender heart became very callous toward the things of God.

Paradoxical as it may seem, the Law makes grace abound, in the same way darkness makes light shine (Revival's Golden Key, 77-8).

Comfort goes on to quote D. L. Moody, "The Law is what he needs...Do not offer the consolation of the gospel until he sees and knows he is guilty before God. We must give enough of the Law to take away all self-righteousness. I pity the man who preaches only one side of the truth--always the gospel, and never the Law" (Ibid., 117-8).

These relational evangelists have also been socialized to understand the "gentleness" required of Christians according to their politically correct culture, and totally distort it from its biblical context. These relational evangelists will generally speaking never experience the joy and reward of being persecuted for their faith. This is simply because they are all too comfortable in not telling the whole truth to their friends who are on their way to hell. "God commands all men everywhere to repent, because He has appointed a day on which He will judge the world in righteousness" (Acts 17:30-1).

The following is a letter I just had published in the summer Biola Connections (an alumni magazine), and it fits in quite well at this point:

Excellent article on developing a thicker skin [On My Heart, Spring 2004]. It's a great reminder for evangelicals who are all too willing to not "rock the boat" as it were. You're right on! When the gospel remains in the closet, the apparent motive of "love" actually turns out to be a lack of it (cf. 2 Cor. 5:14ff.). The politically correct culture here in America is turning too many evangelicals into a bunch of wimps. The only caveats I would add to your article are: 1) Yes, while love is necessary, too many times others are too quick to judge the witnessing methods of others as a lack of love. These judgments typically come from arm-chair quarterbacks who want to micro-manage others into their preferred means. And, 2) we still should rejoice and support the preaching of the gospel even when we don't support a truly unloving means of getting it out (Philippians 1:14-18). Rob Sivulka ('88, '89, '93) Salt Lake City, UT

Now here's what happens when a small community isn't used to people coming to publicly stand against its unrighteousness: they as well as the demons snap, and become quite defensive. It doesn't matter how polite and sweet you are. You're not going to be liked by everybody! And that's why after preaching, someone in the dark began throwing small rocks at us (one of which actually hit me in the head). And that's why Ray, a "fine, outstanding member of Manti" and an LDS home teacher at least at one point, actually attempted to run over three of us Christian missionaries in his Chevy SUV (Daniel was almost ran over earlier, and Marshall and I were almost ran over later). Immediately after Ray went for us, I grabbed onto his window, running with the car, and told him that he stands guilty before God and he needs his sins forgiven. Ray immediately spit in my face (fortunately I was wearing sunglasses, and his dried saliva is still on them today just in case DNA evidence is needed), and sped off. But he only went several houses down, and the cops immediately followed him. They got him to finally come out of his house. They didn't arrest him, since they didn't see the attempted hit and run. They just saw me hanging onto his window. But there were numerous police reports filed on him by eyewitnesses to both of his attempted hit and runs.

Manti's defensiveness was also on display the next night when we had to file police reports again! As five of us (Daniel and Taylor, Glenn, Allen, and I) were walking to the local restaurant immediately as the pageant began, a car pulled onto the street ahead of us, but stopped for a moment. It drove past us, and the guys thought it was a friend of ours. They waved to the car as they held up their signs. When they saw that it wasn't our friend, they immediately began to walk away. The car turned around, parked, and a stocky middle-age man immediately got out of the car. We both approached each other, and I apologized for my friends, since they made an honest mistake in judgement. The guy was obviously bothered, and he started saying that what we were doing with our signs is a bunch of &%$#@. I told the guy that he had a dirty mouth and stood condemned before God, and that he needed all his sins forgiven by letting Jesus give him a new heart. This guy said that he could finish this all that night. I asked him what exactly he meant by that. Glenn could tell this guy was boiling over, so he started to take pictures of him. The guy immediately went after Glenn, grabbing him to try and take his camera away. Glenn past it off to Allen, and the guy immediately tackled Allen behind his car. The guy really whacked the back of his own head on back of his car bumper. He and another guy with him began choking Allen. As we began calling for the police who were just a block away and I began videoing the event, Allen kept his wits about him, hid the camera under the car, and pretended like he was still holding onto the camera. Allen kicked the guy, and Glenn whacked him with his backpack. When Allen got free somehow, he grabbed the camera and ran, sticking the digital camera card into his pocket just in case they were to steal the camera from him. The police arrived within a few minutes, but again they never made an arrest. The suspect and his cronies blamed us for the event. So again, many police reports were filed, and now it will be up to the county prosecutor in both cases to bring these guys to justice.

Now here's the good news: this public display of the truth results in salvations. People are set free from Satan's kingdom, and of course he's going to be upset about that. All together, there were around 16 people who repented and gave their lives to Christ during those 2 weeks. I was privileged to lead one of those to the Lord. The day before the pageant started, many Christian missionaries descended on downtown Salt Lake City. Daniel got to lead a guy named Des to the Lord, but Des' buddy Paul wasn't interested. Later that day I met both Des and Paul. Des told me that he received the Lord, but Paul hadn't. After I gave Paul the Law, he realized how desperate he was, and he repented and asked Christ to save him. Both Paul and Des were born into LDS homes, but haven't been to church since they were little kids. We prayed for them, both expressed an interest in coming to my church, and the next day Allen gave them Bibles.

I had a team of around 20 from Rock Hills Church in Mission Viejo, CA come up for a week of ministry. This was a high school group with a handful of adult counselors. My buddy Brett did a great job in training them for a couple months prior to the mission. Brett has been out to work with me in Utah many times before. He's now working with Stand to Reason (Greg Koukl, president) to train the youth with apologetics. The Rock Hills youth pastor, Jim, invited Brett to train their team, and help lead them on the trip to Utah. From Jim's e-mail below, it seems like he's caught the "disease" too and is already looking forward to next year!

I lectured to a group from Iowa at my church in Salt Lake City on the evening before the pageant. Some of them had heard me speak down at The Ephraim Church of the Bible (about 2 hours from Salt Lake City) last year and were disappointed that they were going to miss my lecture there this year, since they had to return home the day I was speaking, so I gave them a pre-packaged and less detailed version of what I was going to give the Ephraim church a few days later. (The Ephraim church has morning training sessions for all the Christian workers.) When I spoke to the Ephraim church, not only did I speak in the morning, but many requested to hear from me in the afternoon, so that's what I did. I spoke for not quite 2 hours in the morning on the nature of God and Mormonism, and then I spoke for 2 hours on the Trinity and the 2 natures of Christ in the afternoon. The next morning I spoke on a much more condensed version of what I had given the day before to the Rock Hills group back up at my church in Salt Lake City.

Thank you for every prayer said on my behalf, and for every check written on my behalf. If you'd like to have a part in the financial support of this ministry, you can make checks payable to Parousia Ministries. (It's the umbrella ministry of Big Sky Apantao Christian Retreat Ministry. Check out Apantao's web site at: www.bigskyapantao.com.) Please do not write my name anywhere on the check. Given IRS tax laws, you cannot technically receive a tax-deductible receipt if you write my name on the check. All donations sent to the following address will go directly to the work in Utah, so you don't need to write my name anywhere. The post office box is reserved simply for me. You also needn't worry about being put on any other ministry list or receiving any newsletter other than mine. The address to use is:

Parousia Ministries
1520--3rd St. N.W. Suite # C
PMB--163
Great Falls, MT 59404

Shaking the beehive (UT's state symbol),

Photo's of the trip, along with the article in it's entirety can be found here:

And please visit www.mormoninfo.org

[Trout]

Glenn could tell this guy was boiling over, so he started to take pictures of him. The guy immediately went after Glenn, grabbing him to try and take his camera away. Glenn past it off to Allen, and the guy immediately tackled Allen behind his car. The guy really whacked the back of his own head on back of his car bumper. He and another guy with him began choking Allen.

Who says the Christian life is boring?

[Xmansmommy]

Interesting letter, but one thing struck me as I read it. Mormons do preach repentance from sin and perhaps I just read the letter wrong but it seemed to imply (at least to me) that they don't. Am I just misunderstanding?

[Trout]

Interesting letter, but one thing struck me as I read it. Mormons do preach repentance from sin and perhaps I just read the letter wrong but it seemed to imply (at least to me) that they don't. Am I just misunderstanding?

I don't know?

I think what Rob is saying is that people need to repent of Mormonism.

[Xmansmommy]

Oh ok. If that's the case then it would follow that he believes a person who adheres to Mormon beliefs can't be saved. I believe there are some saved Mormons despite their bad doctrine. But that's just me.

[Trout]

Oh ok. If that's the case then it would follow that he believes a person who adheres to Mormon beliefs can't be saved. I believe there are some saved Mormons despite their bad doctrine. But that's just me.

I certainly agree, and I think Rob would too. But I also believe the vast majority of the LDS do need to repent and come to Christ.

[Leroy]

... But I also believe the vast majority of the LDS do need to repent and come to Christ.

This is true to a certain extent with Christian Churches as well.

[Xmansmommy]

Amen to that Leroy!

[Trout]

This is true to a certain extent with Christian Churches as well.

Very true.

And that's a hard group to reach.

The LDS believe they have something more than mainstream Christianity has to offer, I think many of them would view the move to Christianity as a step backward.

I envision many of the unsaved in the Christian churches, quietly nodding their heads at the points made by the pastor, never making the personal connection with the Message being spoken.

But were you to cross examine many of these unsaved Christians, their doctrine would be right on the money.

Which makes Xmom's point, it's not correct doctrine that saves, it's Christ and Him crucified. I think correct doctrine follows genuine conversion. . .maybe I'm wrong.

[Bill the Cat]

I hate to disagree (yeah, right :brow:), but let me suggest an analogy. Say I went to New York City and bought a watch from a street vendor who swore it was a Rolex and it even had "Rolex" printed on it. However, when observed closer, it was discovered that the parts that made up the watch were not the parts required to make up a true Rolex. No matter how much I wanted it to be a Rolex or how much I paid for the watch, it would be nothing more than a Fauxlex. For someone to become a Mormon, they must accept the testimony of Joseph Smith entirely, including the attributes Joseph Smith said Jesus possesses. No matter how much a Mormon swears Mormonism is the truth nor how much they "bear their testimony", the Jesus they have come to accept is nothing more than a Fauxlex. Because of this, regardless of their intent, there is no salvation in a fake Jesus.

[Xmansmommy]

Bill, I know there are Mormons who struggle with accepting JS as having been a true prophet as well as other LDS doctrines. Most have the mindset that they may not understand yet but God will teach them the truth. True they wouldn't necessarily voice their doubts out of fear but some do have them. And I honestly do believe there are some that may even believe what the church teaches and still be saved. Despite the teaching of having "to be perfect then God's grace is sufficient to save you", some really do know their need for Jesus and allow Him to change their hearts. Again, I'm not asking anyone to agree with me, but that's just how I see some Mormon friends I know. I am extremely cautious to judge another's salvation because unlike God, I don't know their hearts. If we believe that perfect doctrine saves then we really are making the cross of Christ of none effect. I believe we all have incorrect doctrine so where is that line drawn? How much bad doctrine will keep us from heaven? They believe they are serving the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob. So do I. As an OVT, I have also been accused of not serving/believing in the God of the bible. Where does God draw that line? And how will we know when we've crossed it? These are sincere questions so I hope that you understand where I am coming from.

[Trout]

I think that at the moment of salvation we are fully justified, made right with God through Jesus our Redeemer, completely apart from works. . .but at that moment we begin the process of sanctification, I believe a big part of that is learning and being conformed to sound doctrine.

Those Christians who find themselves in a cult such as the LDS church will be given the urge and the tools to seperate from it and find fellowship with other Christians who wish to worship God "in Spirit and in Truth".

[Xmansmommy]

Excellent response trout! I believe that does happen to some Mormons.

[lchemist]

Interesting article, even when I think the "relational evangelists" are right.

"love" and "peace"

Luis

[Leroy]

Interesting article, even when I think the "relational evangelists" are right.

"love" and "peace"

Luis

Ichemist, welcome to tweb