Hear Mohler out West

2 John 1:7-11
For many deceivers have gone out into the world, those who do not acknowledge Jesus Christ as coming in the flesh. This is the deceiver and the antichrist. Watch yourselves, that you do not lose what we have accomplished, but that you may receive a full reward. Anyone who goes too far and does not abide in the teaching of Christ, does not have God; the one who abides in the teaching, he has both the Father and the Son. If anyone comes to you and does not bring this teaching, do not receive him into your house, and do not give him a greeting; for the one who gives him a greeting participates in his evil deeds.

 

I am not an Al Mohler fan by any stretch, but I'll go talk to anyone about Jesus if I am invited. If Mormons want to hear what I have to say, I'm happy to go. But since I won't compromise the gospel message, they may be happier to so me go.

I'm going to assume Mohler is doing God's work until he demonstrates otherwise. We should pray for God to use him mightily for the sake of his hearers.

 

Mohler went there to talk about marriage. They have used others before to give the appearance they are aligning themselves with orthodox Christianity. I spoke with one about that issue who had that happen to him and he felt used. He is a well known seminary professor.

The Mormons as Satan does appear as light and are good at giving the appearance of being orthodox. They are so good that a bishop was welcomed by the leaders of a SBC church I pastored until I told the church leaders that would not happen as long as I was there. Mormons hired a marketing agency several years ago to learn what they could to present a better image. The marketing agency told them they needed to talk aobut Jesus more. They talk the right talk and use the same language as Christians and that gives the appearance they are Christians. They claim to be Christians too. Mohler is seen as speaking to them and they use him to show they identify with what he stands for.

Don't kid yourself they know exactly what they are doing. Mohler is not speaking as part of some leaders of a religious community in a community center in support of marriage but at BYU.

 

I liked seeing this in the article.

 

Does anyone who has spoken to Mormons in recent years know any who would disagree with the statement Mohler made, "I believe that salvation comes only to those who believe and trust only in Christ and in his substitutionary atonement for salvation. I believe in justification by faith alone and Christ alone."

 

Mormons would parse that quite differently based on the way they have redefined terms. They would also add "after everything else" after "faith alone" even though that doesn't make sense.

Beyond that, I don't think Mohler's statement is very strong. He seems to be advocating a gospel of forgiveness (that is, only concerned about being forgiven by Christ's work on the cross) instead of the New Testament gospel of an invitation into the Kingdom of God (which include forgiveness, but also much more).

There is no call to discipleship to Christ inherent in his statement.

He also seems to regard Heaven as the final destination instead of the New Heavens and the New Earth, but that could be a matter of semantics.

 

While they call themselves Christians I tend to think they see themselves as part of orthodox Christianity and the leaders are trying to be seen in that light. Slightly over a decade they hired a firm to help them improve their image and this is a result of what they were told. Those I have spoke with in recent years are very different than those of the past. I think that most Christians listening to them would agree that they are believers while those who know what is underneath would not name them as believers.

One can go to www.archive.org and there are books on Mormonism which was seen in the 1800's as the Islam of the west. The Mormons did not come close to naming themselves as Christians but today is a different story. In doing that I believe they are proselytizing believers and making it seem as thought they are just the same. Isn't that what Satan does. I have heard leaders in churches name them as Christians because they call themselves Christians. I believe it is a very dangerous thing for Christians to even be associated in any way with non-believers who are attempting to draw others away. It is one thing for a non-believer to want to know more about Jesus and quite another to try and entice those away who are looking at you as an example. Satan is smart and attempts to deceive people in anyway he can.

In one church I pastored the leaders saw the local bishop as a believer simply because he said he was a Christian. He has been invited to so many Christian things to give a message I was shocked. That practice had been going on for over 20 years. One of the leaders in the church I pastored as also a leader at the state level. It was not until I showed up that the bishop had been invited to preach each year. There was another church that did the same thing. The Mormon church never invited any Christian pastor to preach at their churches.

We are talking about spiritual warfare not a recreation room.

When I spoke with a former Mormon couple about the issue they were completely against mixing in Christian activities with the bishop. They know because she was a translator in the Mormon Church for 14 years. They know the deceit and ways of that church. Satan is alive and well in that church.

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