Tag Archives: Mormonism

Happy Heavenly Mother’s Day?

May 10, 2013 4:28 pm / 11 Comments /

Who is Heavenly Mother?

One of the unique doctrines of Mormonism that separates it from Christianity is the idea that just as we have a Heavenly Father, so we have a Heavenly Mother. A recent article in the Salt Lake Tribune discusses the differing views that Mormons have of her, some of which have been offenses worthy of excommunication.  While some Mormons may wish to discount this idea as mere “folk Mormonism,” there is mention of her in official teaching manuals and even in general conference.

Although little is known about her, she is described as the person who Eve resembled in appearance, and the image in which all daughters of God are made. Read More →

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Manti Mission Trip 2013

April 23, 2013 11:06 am / 39 Comments /

Keith and David talking about Mormonism, how to know truth and the gospel.

Our annual mission trip to Manti, Utah is coming soon. We begin training and preparing our Manti Mission Team Thursday, May 2nd. Training is also open to Christians who want to learn more about Mormonism and how to witness to them. You do not have to go on the mission trip in order to take advantage of this training. We will conduct seven weekly training sessions starting on Thursday, May 2 and will go through Thursday, June 13. The meetings we be at Community Bible Church and alternating between rooms P-7A (portable) and room 134 from 6:45 to 8:30 PM. Because we are meeting in two different rooms, please double check which location we will be meeting at each week. The portables are behind the building. Childcare is available with advance notice.
Our class schedule is as follows.

Read More →

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Christian And Mormon Academic Dialogue: Has it Led To Better Understanding Or Exposed A Serious Lack Of Discernment?

April 16, 2013 2:10 pm / 18 Comments /

I got home yesterday from the EMNR conference in Denver. With the exception of one, all of the workshops were audio recorded, but not video recorded. The only workshop to be video recorded was Bill McKeever’s, “Christian And Mormon Academic Dialogue: Has it Led To Better Understanding Or Exposed A Serious Lack Of Discernment?” Eric Johnson of Mormonism Research Ministry (MRM) was there and videoed the workshop. It is similar to one of the workshops I taught which was titled, “Clearing Up Richard Mouw’s ‘Misconceptions about Mormon Theology.'”

I plan on taking the audio of my workshop and combining with the slides from my PowerPoint and posting it on YouTube some time this week. Until then, enjoy Bill’s take on whether the Christian and Mormon dialogues are helping or not. Feel free to make comments here or on the YouTube video itself. I will inform the guys at MRM that I am posting Bill’s presentation on The Edge, so one of them may respond to your comments. Just please watch the video before you comment.

 

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EMNR 2013- Two Workshops on Mormonism

April 9, 2013 1:17 pm / 2 Comments /

I will be presenting two workshops on Mormonism at the 2013 Evangelical Ministries To New Religions conference this weekend in Denver, Colorado. All the info you need can be found here. If you are in the Denver area, I would love to meet you. The titles of my two workshops are, “Clearing Up Richard Mouw’s ‘Misconceptions about Mormon Theology’” and “The Impossible Gospel of Mormonism as Taught in Mormon Church Manuals.” Here is a video of the “Impossible Gospel” presentation I did last year in another venue.

The workshop on Richard Mouw is new and I am really looking forward to presenting this one. The misconceptions of Mormonism I am referring to are three points found on the web site of Fuller Theological Seminary. Both workshops should be audio taped.

Since I will be away from the office, please be patient with me regarding the approval of comments on this blog. As you can understand, I will be a very busy boy and will not be able to camp in front of a computer to review comments.

Please pray that I will be able to present these workshops in an accurate and God-honoring manner. Also, please pray for my family while I am gone. Two of our five-family (no names of our children please) have just recovered from being sick and one child just got sick last night. We don’t want the other two getting sick too.

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Prophets Who Do Not Prophesy

April 6, 2013 4:55 pm / 66 Comments /

Every six months the Church of Jesus of Latter-day Saints  hosts an event called General Conference. The LDS Church teaches that when the General Authorities speak in conference,  it is as if the Lord Himself were speaking.

Mormons are proud of the claim that they have continuing revelation in the form of these prophets, seers and revelators. I have talked with countless Mormons who accuse me of believing that God does not speak today. They then point to General Conference. Numerous Mormons have told me, “We get new scripture every six months.” Really? If this is true, then I can’t help but wonder why there hasn’t really been anything new in… forever.

Years ago I talked with a set of Mormon Missionaries who wanted to know if I watched the recent conference that they had informed me about the week before. I asked why it was so important. They told me some of the things I have already mentioned above, i.e. God will be speaking to us and we need to be led by a prophet.

When I asked what it was that I needed to know that wasn’t already taught in the Bible, or even in the works they accept as Scripture, they stuttered and looked at each other.

“Well, there was that one talk ‘elder so-and-so’ gave that spoke about staying out of debt.”

“You mean like God tells us in Proverbs?”

The other Mormon missionary said, “Apostle ‘so-and-so’ spoke about dangers of internet pornography. The Bible doesn’t talk about that.”

“True, but Jesus does tell us that if we look at a woman lustfully, we have committed adultery in our hearts.”

“Hmmm. That is a good point.”

There wasn’t anything that these two guys could recollect to that was anything new. Everything had already been taught in one way, shape or form. As I think back on that occasion, and sit here at my keyboard listening to general conference, I have never understood why people get so excited for this event. Apostle David A. Bednar is speaking on chastity right now. He is speaking about it within the context of a basic Mormon world view, but it isn’t anything I haven’t already heard or read before in my studies of Mormon literature. This leads me to a question, a number of questions actually.

Why do we need prophets to teach us what we have already been taught? As a Christian, I have heard many lessons like this before taught by many godly men and women. Don’t get me wrong, I am not trying to criticize Elder Bednar for what he is teaching. He is saying some really good things about being morally upright and sexually clean. What I am questioning is why do Mormons need a prophet to declare these types of things which are so basic to morality? Again, I haven’t heard anything I haven’t already heard before by spiritual leaders, both Mormon and non-Mormon.

Basically it gets down to this for me. What I want to know is why do Mormon prophets speak on such basic things and avoid the things that early Mormon prophets spoke about? I ask this last question as respectfully as I can. Why have prophets, seers and revelators who don’t prophesy, see or reveal anything that we haven’t already heard, seen or had revealed?

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