A Bout With Doubt: Part 5 – Global Doubt 2: Transcript & Outline

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A BOUT WITH DOUBT

Global Doubt 2

Ed Young

December 10, 2001

I kicked off a two-part talk called, “Global Doubt.”  During our last session, I compared Christianity to some of the major world religions: Hinduism, Buddhism, and Islam.  It’s very important to understand what others in our world believe and how those beliefs compare to biblical faith.

Before I moved to the Metroplex, I worked as a staff member for a very large congregation.  I will never forget what happened one Sunday morning.  I was walking in the lobby, right before the service was cranking up and people were rushing in trying to get a good seat and all that.  I noticed a woman emerge from the ladies room, and she walked right in front of me.  She was dressed to the hilt—perfect hair, designer clothing.  Everything was in place, except for one thing.  When she turned and walked in front of me, she had inadvertently tucked her dress into the back of her pantyhose.

Here I watched a 45-year-old Houstonian woman parading through the lobby.  I had some choices, didn’t I?  Three to be exact.  Number one: I could have done nothing.  I could have said to myself, “Well….”  Number two: I could have rolled my eyes and said to myself, “How stupid.  I mean, come on, check your outfit before you leave the restroom, you know?”  Or number three: I could have walked up to her, and in love, said, “I want to tell you something true about your condition.”

Today, we talk about some religions that are closer to home, specifically, Jehovah’s Witnesses and Mormons.  I ask you, “Could it be that Jehovah’s Witnesses and Mormons are parading through the lobby of life with their skirt tucked in their hose without even realizing it?”  Basically, we have the same choices that I had in that lobby about a decade ago.  We can either do nothing, say to ourselves how ridiculous, how crazy, or we can speak the truth in love.

Jesus commanded us to love our neighbor like we love ourselves.  To love someone, you must understand them.  So, today as I talk to you about Jehovah’s Witnesses and Mormons, I am just going to throw the information out there and let you be the judge.  I’m going to let you decide whether they have their dresses tucked in their hose or not.  I am going to let you decide whether this is biblical Christianity or not.  Normally, I don’t give this much detailed information, but during this particular talk, I’ve got to do so.  I have spent untold hours of research and been in a lot of dialogue and conversation with a lot people inside and outside these faiths.

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A BOUT WITH DOUBT

Global Doubt 2

Ed Young

December 10, 2001

I kicked off a two-part talk called, “Global Doubt.”  During our last session, I compared Christianity to some of the major world religions: Hinduism, Buddhism, and Islam.  It’s very important to understand what others in our world believe and how those beliefs compare to biblical faith.

Before I moved to the Metroplex, I worked as a staff member for a very large congregation.  I will never forget what happened one Sunday morning.  I was walking in the lobby, right before the service was cranking up and people were rushing in trying to get a good seat and all that.  I noticed a woman emerge from the ladies room, and she walked right in front of me.  She was dressed to the hilt—perfect hair, designer clothing.  Everything was in place, except for one thing.  When she turned and walked in front of me, she had inadvertently tucked her dress into the back of her pantyhose.

Here I watched a 45-year-old Houstonian woman parading through the lobby.  I had some choices, didn’t I?  Three to be exact.  Number one: I could have done nothing.  I could have said to myself, “Well….”  Number two: I could have rolled my eyes and said to myself, “How stupid.  I mean, come on, check your outfit before you leave the restroom, you know?”  Or number three: I could have walked up to her, and in love, said, “I want to tell you something true about your condition.”

Today, we talk about some religions that are closer to home, specifically, Jehovah’s Witnesses and Mormons.  I ask you, “Could it be that Jehovah’s Witnesses and Mormons are parading through the lobby of life with their skirt tucked in their hose without even realizing it?”  Basically, we have the same choices that I had in that lobby about a decade ago.  We can either do nothing, say to ourselves how ridiculous, how crazy, or we can speak the truth in love.

Jesus commanded us to love our neighbor like we love ourselves.  To love someone, you must understand them.  So, today as I talk to you about Jehovah’s Witnesses and Mormons, I am just going to throw the information out there and let you be the judge.  I’m going to let you decide whether they have their dresses tucked in their hose or not.  I am going to let you decide whether this is biblical Christianity or not.  Normally, I don’t give this much detailed information, but during this particular talk, I’ve got to do so.  I have spent untold hours of research and been in a lot of dialogue and conversation with a lot people inside and outside these faiths.

So let’s jump in and talk about the first religion: the J.W.’s, the Jehovah’s Witnesses.  Jehovah’s Witnesses founder is Charles Taze Russell.  The focus is end times.  The publication is The Watchtower.

Let me jump back a little bit and talk to you about the founder.  In the 1800’s, Charles Taze Russell, who at that time was in his teens with no formal theological education, began to study the Bible and the angles and measurements of the corridors of the Great Pyramids of Egypt.  He combined these two together, and he picked 1914 as the date when Armageddon would take place.  He picked 1914 as the time when Christ would return to Earth.

He then started The Watchtower Society.  He said, “If you are not a member of The Watchtower Society, then you will not survive Armageddon.”  Thousands jumped on board.  Thousands joined the J.W. movement.  1914 came and went, and Jesus didn’t show on Earth.  Armageddon did not happen.  So Charles Taze Russell went back to the drawing board.  He crunched some more Great Pyramid numbers and read some more Bible verses.  And he said, “Okay, I was wrong.  I was wrong.  It’s not 1914; it’s 1915.  That’s the date, 1915.  Armageddon will happen then.”  Armageddon came and went, and in 1916, Russell died.

The J.W.’s were taken over by a very charismatic and eccentric fellow by the name of Judge Rutherford.  He wasn’t a judge; he just called himself that.  It’s kind of like me.  When I was a junior high kid, I used to watch Julius Irving, Dr. J, play basketball.  I started calling myself Dr. E—same kind of deal.  Judge Rutherford, this prolific writer and preacher, began to really put the J.W.’s in the mainstream, so to speak.  He did a great job in marketing.  He preached famous sermons and wrote books.  He said, “Okay, the real date is 1925.  That’s it.  1925, that’s when Armageddon will take place.  That’s when the end times will occur.”  1925 came and went, and nothing happened.

Then the J.W.’s came up with another date.  They just thought, “Okay, 1978, that’s the date.”  Well, ’78 came and went.  Jesus didn’t show.  No Armageddon.  No end times.  Embarrassed, Jehovah’s Witness leaders began to rewrite stuff, and change stuff.  Let’s talk about what they believe.  Could it be that J.W.’s have their skirts tucked in their hose without even knowing it?  What do they believe?

First of all, they reject the trinity.  The trinity is God the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy Spirit: three in one, one in three.  We believe biblically that they are co-existent and co-eternal.  Here is what the Witnesses say about the trinity, about God: I quote, “Jehovah is no Babylonian triad of gods.  No god of three persons in one individual.  Jehovah is only one god in one person.”  What do they believe about Jesus?  The J.W.’s believe that Jesus was really Michael.  They believe that God created this super angel, and Michael became Christ, and Christ died for Adam’s sin.  Then when Christ ascended, he morphed back into Michael.

How about the Holy Spirit?  This group says the Holy Spirit is this force, this energy who does God’s bidding on Earth.  Well, do they believe the Bible?  People ask that question a lot.  Here is what they say about the Bible.  “Our true source is the Bible,” but here is the kicker, “as it is interpreted and translated and explained by leaders of The Watchtower Society.”  The Watchtower Publication House in Brooklyn, New York, cranks out over 800,000 magazines a day.  The J.W.’s eat this stuff up because to them, when they read The Watchtower, it’s like reading raw truth from God.

Here’s what The Watchtower says about itself: “The Watchtower Society is God’s sole collective channel for the flow of biblical truth to men on Earth.”  In effect, J.W.’s say, don’t read the Bible on your own, and don’t go to a Bible study at your church.  The only way you are going to know what the Bible says is if it is funneled through The Watchtower Society— their interpretation, their slant, their spin on scripture.

Here is how you attain salvation if you are a Jehovah’s Witness.  First, you have got to have faith in Jehovah.  Second, you have got to have faith in Christ’s ransom sacrifice.  But remember, it was for Adam’s sin.  Third— and this is a huge one here, this looms large—good works.  I mean to tell you, you have got to work if you are going to be a good J.W.  You’ve got to work if you are going to attain true paradise.  Here is what you have to do.  First of all, you have got to be baptized by a male Jehovah Witness.  Second, you have got to really involve yourself in door-to-door preaching.  Third, you have got to hand out Watchtower literature.  And fourth, you have got to attend Kingdom Hall meetings.  If you mess up, if you are not a good J.W., guess what?  You might not make it through Armageddon and on top of that, you probably won’t go to the ultimate heaven.

You can see the pressure, can’t you?  You can see the intensity.  You can see the obsession with the end times.  If you don’t do all these things, you might not make it.  You won’t survive Armageddon.  You are going to get fried, basted, and roasted when Jesus comes back.

Here’s what one former Jehovah’s Witness said, “I hated every minute, every hour of being a Witness, but I thought it was the only way to survive Armageddon and live on paradise Earth.  Many times, I would have left, if someone had only presented the gospel to me.”

J.W.’s think that only 144,000 people will ever attain the ultimate first class heaven.  They say the rest will go to a kind of “coach-type” existence.  They will fly coach on a place called Paradise Earth.

Matthew 11:28 is a verse that I think many Witnesses need to understand and own.  Jesus said, “Come to me all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest.”  Romans 3:28, “For we maintain that a man is justified by faith apart from observing the law.”  It’s by faith with no math.  It’s by faith with no addition, subtraction, multiplication, or division.

Several years ago, I was training for a race and I was on a treadmill.  I was kind of bored on the treadmill, so I had this walkman on, and I was just rocking to the music.  I was trying to really burn it out.  I was going faster and faster and faster.  I got so into the song that I forgot I was on a treadmill.  I tripped up on the treadmill, and the whole thing almost turned over.  I fell off the treadmill.  People in the health club were saying, “Ed, you okay?  Are you okay?”

In my personal opinion, Jehovah’s Witnesses are on a treadmill trying to work their way to appease a holy God.  They are so locked in to their little Watchtower Society, to their little limited theology.  They are so listening to that, that they forget what they are doing.  They don’t really know the truth.  It’s time for them—I pray—to jump off of the treadmill, to land on their feet, and say, “You know, there’s a better way.”  It’s a faith deal with no math.

Several days ago, we talked to a girl named Dawn Franko, a former Jehovah’s Witness.  Listen to her words:

“One of the big things I remember about growing up in that faith is not being able to celebrate my birthday, or Christmas, or any other kind of holidays.  There are different beliefs between Christianity and the Jehovah’s Witnesses.  The Jehovah’s Witnesses believe that there are only a 144,000 that will go to heaven.  Also, they believe that there is no such thing as hell; that once a person dies, they go to sleep.  That’s it.

As far as religion, I had a lot of anger towards it.  I just didn’t want to have anything to do with it.  After a couple of years, you just start wondering where you fit in as far as religion.  You want a purpose, but you don’t know where to start.  You have the guilt trip of every time you went into a different church, thinking God would strike me right there.  That’s it.  I’m going to be destroyed.  My husband had been going here for awhile.  Every weekend, he would go faithfully.  He would always encourage me to go, but I wouldn’t.  I noticed the change in him.  Eventually, I went.  I went to the Christmas service last year.  I saw the kind people that were there, the greeters that came in, and I realized that this is wonderful.  It’s not what my parents had told me, that this was this horrible place in another church.

I kind of backed off for a little bit, and then I came to another service.  I guess I kind of got scared off because they sang the song, ‘Jump.’  My husband kept encouraging me to go, and his friends at work that attend here too, encouraged me to go.  I met them and joined a Home Team right away.  I mean, I just started going regularly.  I did a lot of praying because I still had a lot of questions, I guess, as far as what I felt about the religion, and so I started praying.

When I’d get ready for Home Team, I’d just to go through the book with my husband, and even though it wasn’t about what we were studying, I’d pray that God would show me something that I had my doubts about.  Probably about a month and a half ago, two months ago, Ed had a prayer that he wanted everyone…while he prayed, that we would go ahead and say our own prayer.  And one of them was inviting Christ into our heart and our lives.  I did that and it is wonderful.  As far as being a family again, my husband and I were both attending the same church.  We both have the same beliefs.  And my husband and my stepson will both be baptized next Sunday.

My advice towards people who have friends as Jehovah’s Witnesses is to be patient with them because their minds are covered.  They are protected.  I think if you just invite them one time, give them a little bit, invite them again.  We are good Christian people out here, good socializing.  We are not going to make you go astray, and just want you to give us a chance to show you what God has to offer.”

There are four million Jehovah’s Witnesses worldwide.  Four million of them who matter to God.  Four million of them who are one invitation away, one prayer of faith away—without any math—of turning their life over to Christ.

I am, right now, going to make a very obvious statement: Nike and Microsoft have done a fantastic job of marketing.  You might want to write that down.  That was pretty profound.  “I mean, who doesn’t know that?” you are saying to yourself.  I am going to tell you something, something you might not know.  There has been another entity who has done an even better job at marketing than Nike and Microsoft.  And, just of late, some of the major periodicals have been covering them.  I am talking about the Mormon Church.  Could it be that the Mormons are parading through the lobby of life with their skirts tucked in their hose without even realizing it?  If I asked you to describe a Mormon man, for example, four decades ago, you would say, “A good conservative guy from Utah who doesn’t drink coffee and has a bunch of wives.”  That’s what you would have said in describing a Mormon man.

Well, today, that has changed.  They have done a phenomenal job of positioning themselves.  They have hired some of the best marketing firms on the planet to do so.  In today’s culture, they have taken the “Mormon Church” and put it right beside the major Christian denominations.   They have said, “Hey, we are just like you guys.  We’re just like you girls.”

In 1982, they added beneath one of their truth sources, The Book of Mormon, these words, “Another testament of Jesus Christ.”  They emphasize, more and more, Jesus Christ.  They teach their missionaries— and about 60% of Mormons have gone into the mission field—to use terms that resonate with Christians.  But if you ask them to define the terms, they mean something totally different to them than they do us.  Just ask a Mormon to define the term, say, “What does ‘Jesus Christ’ mean?”  “You say Jesus Christ.”  “What does ‘the Bible’ mean?”  “You say the Bible.”  “What does ‘God the Father’ mean to you?”

Let’s get into what they believe, who they are, and how the whole thing got started.  Their founder is Joseph Smith.  The focus is two-fold: procreation and becoming Gods.  Their publications are, The Book of Mormon, The Pearl of Great Price, and a book called Doctrines and Covenants.

As I did with the J.W.’s, let me push the rewind button and talk to you about their founder, Joseph Smith.  Everything I am saying today, friends, is documented.  If you want a source, a bibliography, just log onto our website, call the office, or see us in the bookstore, and we will give you all of these sources.  Joseph Smith was a teenage guy.  His parents moved about twenty times during his teen years.  His father was known as a money digger who spent most of his life looking for Captain Kid’s treasure with a divining rod.

Smith’s mother was very superstitious, and Joseph Smith was more or less confused over which church to join.  At 14 or 15 years of age, he didn’t know whether to join the Presbyterian Church or the Methodist Church.  So one afternoon, he walked in the woods outside of his house in Palmyra, New York, and Smith said that God the Father and God the Son appeared to him.  Smith claimed that God the Father and God the Son said that, and I am quoting now, “All churches are wrong and they are an abomination.”  They told him that he, Joseph Smith, was going to be the guy to restore the true church.

Several years later, Smith said an angel showed up and pointed him to some golden tablets buried in the same area of woods.  Smith said that, by looking through mysterious glasses, he translated these gold plates into what is today called, The Book of Mormon, which is basically a history of a vast civilization that lived in the Americas that are from the lost tribes of Israel.  They chronicle Christ’s post-resurrection appearances in North and South America.

It’s an historical fact that Joseph Smith was arrested for the demonic practice of glass-looking.  It’s an historical fact that he was an adulterer.  It’s an historical fact that he was involved in illegal banking schemes.  It’s an historical fact that he was killed in a shoot-out.  It’s an historical fact that he destroyed a printing press that was printing negative literature about this movement.

Here is what Dr. Walter Martin says about Smith’s claim and his “vision”: “With one special revelation, the Mormon church expects its intended converts to accept the totality of the unsupported testimony of a 15-year-old boy—that nobody ever preached Jesus Christ’s gospel—from the close of the Apostolic Age until the Restoration through Joseph Smith, Jr. beginning in 1820.”

I hope you let that settle in.

If you believe what Smith said, you are wiping out everything in Christianity from the end of the Apostolic Age until Joseph Smith.

“With one dogmatic assertion,” Martin writes, “Joseph pronounced everybody wrong—all Christian theology an abomination and all professing Christians corrupt—all in the name of God.  How strange for this to be presented as restored Christianity when Christ specifically promised that the gates of hell would not prevail against the church.”  That’s Matthew 16:18.

In Mormonism, we find God contradicting this statement in a vision to Joseph Smith, Jr. some 18 centuries later.  Joseph Smith also got into trouble when he told people that, by looking through his mysterious glasses, they could find buried treasure.  I could go on and on and for the life of me—and this is my personal opinion—I cannot believe how Mormons hold Joseph Smith in such high esteem when the historical records speak otherwise.  But I know why.  To be a good Mormon, you cannot ask questions.  You can’t doubt.  If you do, you are shunned.

The head of the Mormon church said this in a speech in 1980, “Any Latter Day Saint,” another name for Mormons, “who denounces or opposes, whether actively or otherwise, any plan or doctrine advocated by the prophets, seers, and revelators of the church is cultivating the spirit of apostasy.  Lucifer wins a great victory when he can get members of the church to speak against their leaders and to do their own thinking.  When our leaders speak, the thinking has been done.  When they propose a plan, it is God’s plan.  When they point the way, there is no other way which is safe.  When they give directions, it should mark the end of controversy.”

Here’s what Mormons believe.  Here is how you become a good Mormon; here is how you are saved in Mormon theology: First, believe in Christ.  Remember though, Jesus to them sounds like Jesus to us; but, if you get them to define who Jesus is, Jesus to a Mormon was Lucifer’s older brother.  Lucifer ended up being Satan.  “Jesus,” Mormon’s say, “is our oldest brother.”

Also, they say, “Salvation is achieved by faithful obedience to Mormon doctrine.”  They have four major books.  The lesser of the books is the Bible.  The Book of Mormon, a book I have already talked about, is the main truth source.  Another book, the third, The Pearl of Great Price, is basically comprised of 136 revelations—revelations like baptism for the dead, something I will talk to you a little bit later about.  Another example is temple and ceremonial marriages, a covenant I will talk to you later about in the Mormon Church.

Another book that they believe is more important than the Bible is Doctrine and Covenants.  There are a number of books within the Doctrine and Covenants.  One is the Book of Moses and another one is the Book of Abraham.  Joseph Smith claims that he bought several mummies from traveling salesmen and inside the mummies was this Book of Abraham signed by the great man of faith himself.  It was proved to be a fraud, but I just thought I would throw that in.

Here is another way that you are saved in the Mormon faith, and this is called The Doctrine of the Living Prophet.  Adherence to the Doctrine, and this really embarrassed the Mormon Church, of the Living Prophet.  Here is what that means: It means that the president of the Mormon Church can speak on God’s behalf.  When he speaks, that is God’s word.  That’s it.  No questions asked.  That’s it.  This has been a very sad state for the Mormon Church because—during their history, dating back to 1820—the Living Prophets have made some horrendous and horrible statements.

Let’s begin with Joseph Smith.  One of his problem prophecies is the legitimacy and desirability of polygamy.  Smith said, “You need to have multiple wives.”  This threw the Mormon Church from 1843 until 1890.  In 1890, another Living Prophet had another revelation from God discounting this supposed infallible prophecy from Smith, and he took it off the record.

Another embarrassing problem—another problem prophecy, I like to say—is from Joseph Smith, when he prohibited African Americans from full participation in the Mormon Church.  Ladies and gentlemen, Joseph Smith was a racist.  He made statements about African Americans in the Book of Mormon that I would not even read to you.  This stood in the Mormon Church for over 100 years until, due to pressure, they caved in.  One of the pressure points was an interview that Barbara Walters had with the Osmond family.  Barbara said, “How in the world can you justify a religion that does not stand for equality?”  The Osmonds stuttered, stumbled, and stammered; and several days later, Spencer Kimble, head of the Mormon church—June 9, 1978—said, “Okay, now all African Americans can be full participating members of the Mormon church.”

Here is some of their theology, and again, this is all documented.  We are not pulling stuff out of the sky.  We are talking straight from their text.  Mormons believe that God was once a human being like you and me.  He had flesh and bones.  God was obedient to his heavenly father to such a degree that he climbed the ladder of good works; and secondly, now God is on his planet with his various wives, procreating, having sex, cranking out spiritual babies.  These spiritual babies are kind of like in a cosmic green room waiting to infiltrate physical babies born on our earth and then once they infiltrate them, they start the whole process over.  One day, if you are a good Mormon, you can have your own planet with multiple wives and create spiritual babies.  It goes around and around.

I know what you are thinking.  You are saying, “Ed, this sounds like the X-Files, man.”  I didn’t say that for you to laugh.  It does.  Yet we have 11 million Mormons worldwide and they prey—not pray, but prey—on people who don’t know really what they believe.  They are incredible at marketing, incredible at positioning.  But let me say this: they are good people.  They are kind people.  They do wonderful things.  But in my opinion, they are duped into thinking that Joseph Smith, a reprobate, a criminal, had the corner on the market.

I’ll continue to read some of his quotes.  “I told the brethren that The Book of Mormon,” Joseph said, “was the most correct of any book on Earth and the keystone of our religion and a man would get nearer to God by abiding by its precepts than by any other book.”  There have been over 2,200 changes in The Book of Mormon since it was penned.  It’s a perfect book?

Here’s another one.  “The greatest responsibility in this world that God has laid upon us is to seek after dead.”  Mormons believe in baptism for the dead.  That is why they are obsessed about genealogies.  They say if you can figure out who your relatives are, you can be baptized for them.  Let’s say Uncle Fred, your great- great- great-grandfather was a hell-raising, woman-chasing, dope-smoking guy.  You can be baptized for him, and he will get into heaven.

Smith said this, “There are men living on the moon who dress like Quakers and live to be nearly 1,000 years old.”  I didn’t see the Quakers roll out the carpet for Neil Armstrong beneath the lunar module.  I’ve got to laugh to help from crying: 11 million people who matter to God, 11 million people who are missing the boat.  That’s what I believe.  Make your own choice.  I can’t do it for you.

Now, having said all that, and I have just scratched the surface, here is what Mormons say: that all of us when we die will face a trinity of God the Father, God the Son, and Joseph Smith.

Here is what Brigham Young—Brigham Young, BYU, the great university, the great sports driven university, a great academic university—said about Joseph Smith, “And he that confesseth not that Jesus has come in the flesh and sent Joseph Smith with the fullness of the gospel to this generation is not of God, but is Anti-Christ.”  He also said, “No man or woman in this dispensation will ever enter into the celestial kingdom of God without the consent of Joseph Smith.”

I could talk to you about the three levels of heaven—terrestrial, telestial,  and celestial.  I could talk to you about the sanctified temple underwear that good Mormons are to wear for the rest of their lives and never take off—some underwear they receive when they have their temple marriages.  I won’t even get into that, not here.  But read it for yourself.  Check it out. Do the facts.  If you are a Mormon, study.  Look at the historical records.

In Revelation, Chapter 22:18 and 19, “If anyone adds anything to them, God will add to him the plagues described in this book.  And if anyone takes words away from this book of prophecy, God will take away from him his share in the tree of life….”  In other words, it’s faith with no math, faith with no addition, no subtraction, no multiplication and no division…faith.

Jesus said in Matthew 7:15, “Watch out for false prophets.  They come to you in sheep’s clothing, but inwardly they are ferocious wolves.”  False prophets, see, share truth enveloped in a lie, or a lie enveloped in truth.  Check it out.  I talked to a former Mormon, and here is what he had to say:

“My father married into that. They are still very active in the Mormon faith, and basically growing up in it, I was baptized when I was eight.  I continued to go, and it was when I reached high school years that I started that kind of rebel stage where you start to question things and search some things out.  I was meeting people who were not Mormons, because all along, my family had kept me around Mormons.

Getting closer to my graduation date from high school, I was summoned to come to the Bishop’s office and I knew what it was.  That is when you are getting ready to go on your mission.  Mission is…and I don’t know what the time is now but back then it was, a two-year term.  You are basically sent off to a far off region, or you could be kept here domestically.  You are basically just going door to door reaching out to people trying to convert them, whether they are believers or not.  You want to convert them to Mormonism.  I wasn’t sure, and I definitely was not prepared to go on a mission.  I didn’t want to dedicate myself to that.

Expecting to be scolded, I was.  But it went beyond that.  I was told that, because Mormons believe in the levels of heaven and the top being the celestial kingdom where God is and where you can actually sit with God, I was never going to get to see the face of God.  The Mormon faith is an entire work-based religion.  It’s what your works are on this planet that gets you to where you want to be.  In the Mormon faith you have presidents, and that is the top level of the Mormon faith.  He is the prophet.

He has the apostles just like way back when, and whatever the president says goes.  Whereas, we have the commandments, one of them being “Thou shall not commit adultery.”  If the Mormon president says, “Thou shall not commit adultery, however, today it’s okay,” because he says it, it is coming from God.  Therefore, at that time, on that day, adultery would be okay.

For that whole duration of leaving the Mormon church and in my search mode, I struggled and struggled hard because I have a family who I love.  They are my family and yet they shunned me—all but my mother.  My mother loves me and I am her son, but she is still very active in her faith.  She has responsibilities and a position with the church.  I have cousins and uncles, and they are members of high council; and that’s a big deal.  To this day, I am shunned.  I met my wife, who is a believer, and she took my hand and didn’t push me, but she guided me.

We were sitting in church, and Ed proceeded to talk about what it is to be a Christ-follower; and he even got behind the curtain and talked about hiding behind the curtain.  Then he jumped off the stage and was saying, “Start your path.  Follow me to Newcomers Class.”  While I was sitting waiting for the greeting, at that time I prayed my prayer.  I accepted Christ in my life and, immediately after that, I couldn’t rush you all enough to baptize me.  I wanted to go public, and I wanted to take that step.  Every Mormon has to have had that day where they feel something tugging at them.

The advice I would have for an active Mormon who feels that little inch of tugging is it’s for a reason.  It’s not coming out of anywhere but from God.  He is tugging at you and telling you that this is not the way.  Mormons are good people.  They are very family-based.  They preach good principles.  Rubbing shoulders with a Mormon is not bad.  They are very, very defensive, I will tell you that.  They teach you that there are doubters and there are those people.  Basically, you are the evil demon and stay away from those people.  So they may not want to rub shoulders with you.  Today, I am a Christian; and being a former Mormon, I can tell you that the Bible is The Word, and it is through Jesus Christ that we are where we are.”

Maybe you are like Sam.  Maybe you feel that tug on your life right now.  I want to tell you something.  Once again, it is faith with no math.  It’s not faith plus The Watchtower.  It’s not faith plus door-knocking.  It’s not faith plus literature distribution.  It’s not faith plus Fellowship Church.  It’s not faith plus the Mormon Church.  It’s not faith plus sanctified undergarments.  It’s not faith plus Doctrine and Covenants.  It’s not faith plus Joseph Smith.  It’s faith.

There is one God.  God the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy Spirit: three in one, one in three.  They are co-existent and co-eternal.  There is one book, the Bible.  There is one way.  In John 14:6, Jesus said, “I am the way, the truth and the life.  No one comes to the father except by me.”

There are four million Jehovah’s Witnesses who matter to God.  There are 11 million Mormons who matter to God.  I for one am not going to sit back and do nothing.  I am not going to laugh and make fun of them.  I’m going to speak the truth in love.  You folks, the J.W.’s and Mormons, need to bow the knee to Christ.  Do it because it’s faith with no math.