The Protestant Gospel Will Lag Behind the Mormon Gospel
When I walk home after jogging I like to stop and chat with the Mormon or Jehovah’s Witness missionaries out doing their thing. I try to monopolize the conversation so it doesn’t turn out to be a waste of everyone’s time, if you know what I mean. I like to start with this: “Out sharing the Gospel?” Their eyes usually light up and immediately it’s like we are spiritual comrades. “Yes, we are!” they usually say, and while they are taken aback at such a friendly fellow it gives me an opportunity to continue the fun by asking: “What is the Gospel? Can you give it to me in one sentence?”
Today I did this with a couple of them and one said, very thoughtfully,
“One sentence? Hmmm…wow! Let’s see, uh…”
What would you have said? If you are a Christian, what would be your one sentence version of the Gospel of Jesus Christ?
After looking at each other for a moment trying to come up with a one sentence version of the Gospel one of them said,
“Jesus is our savior. And God loves us.”
“That’s two sentences. But you did connect them with an “and” so close enough, I’ll call it one,”
and we had a good laugh.
Of course, them being Mormons, you know there’s more to it than that. Or so we’ve been told.
I told them my one sentence version, and they really liked the sound of it:
“If you are wicked, stop doing wicked stuff, and Jesus died for you to help you, if you repent, and if you’re not wicked, Jesus died for you to help you become more like Christ. OK, that’s 3 sentences but if I let you combine your two with a conjunction to make one sentence I’m going to let me combine 3 sentences.”
We had another good laugh.
After several conversations with Mormon missionaries I know that what they are telling us isn’t all that they believe. To “get saved” is more than just, “God loves you, Jesus died for you; believe that, and you’re in.” I know this because I’ve learned that Mormons are trained sequentially and a missionary straight out of high school isn’t privy to all that they believe. Well, OK, that also is what I was told by the same apologists for the Christian faith trying to explain why they are a cult. Apologists rarely present an accurate picture of anything they are trying to disprove. I do like to get it from the horse’s mouth, whenever possible.
After spending some time with a Mormon attorney who no doubt knew more about his faith than your average missionary straight out of high school I’m even less convinced that what I’ve been told about what they really believe (that the missionaries don’t even know), was at all accurate. I’m guessing that lawyer understood it better than all of us, and he told me,
“God loves us, Jesus died for us, believe that and you’re in. That’s it. Nothing else needs to be added.”
Be that as it may, how we as Christians present the Gospel is my concern for this post. I wouldn’t be surprised if your one sentence version is exactly the same as theirs: “God loves us and Jesus is our Savior.”
But here’s the thing. Just as what they said might not be the whole story, like you might also need to get baptized in their church to be acceptable to God ( the same thing the Roman Catholic church teaches, BTW), your one sentence version is incomplete. It doesn’t tell the whole story. I’ve been an Evangelical long enough to know there’s a lot more to this than just that. You’re one sentence doesn’t tell us all we need to know to get saved.
How so?
Continue reading on my blog article The Protestant Gospel Will Lag Behind the Mormon Gospel
@kirbyhopper This one touched me so much! God loves us, Jesus died for us, believe that and you’re in. That’s it. Nothing else needs to be added.” Thanks for sharing.
It's not what the scriptures teach, however. In my article I take issue with that idea.
You can't have Jesus as Savior if He isn't your Lord.
There are many ways in which Jesus can be Lord. The message of Jn. 3 regarding being born again is that it's like the wind. We don't always understand how it works or what the Spirit is doing some place else. We know what we see right in front of us, but that's about it. When someone asked Jesus how to inherit eternal life, he said to "Love God (please note he was talking to a Jew so that had a particular meaning to him)" and "Love your neighbor as yourself." What if someone is taught to love his neighbor by someone who learned it from someone who learned it from Jesus himself? Isn't he still following the teachings of Jesus, so isn't Jesus his Lord, and isn't he doing what Jesus said to inherit eternal life so he is saved? I think we error in trying to narrowly define what it means to be born again or saved, and we end up making God a whole lot less gracious than he really is.
(Matthew 28:19-20 NIV) Therefore go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, {20} and teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you. And surely I am with you always, to the very end of the age."
Mormonism deliberately markets itself as just another Christian denomination but they're a cult. They use the same words but redefine them. They believe that God was a man who became God. They believe that they can become gods too.
I don't agree with everything they believe, but it doesn't matter whether I do or not. I know many Christian churches that are cults, for one reason or another. Been in a couple myself. We have a Baptist church here in the Tri-Cities that is a cult. Do they have anything to offer the Body of Christ? Quite possibly. They are Baptists, after all. I always look for the good, not just the bad. I have yet to encounter an Evangelical, or even just a Protestant church, that doesn't redefine the words in the Bible. I hear it from sermons all the time. It will be happening tomorrow in pulpits all across the land as preachers turn "Hades" or "Gehenna" into a place where non-Christians will suffer for eternity. If you are aware of church history you might know how the doctrine of the Trinity was developed over time to where "theos" came to mean "fully God", something that the Bible itself never claims regarding Jesus, or where "logos" came to mean a person instead of a thought, something that was never taught in the church prior to about 150 AD.
Food for thought. Although i think your one sentence is great, I'm now thinking of a one sentence of my own.
I don't think it's very "good" at all. To me it does not show the love of God.
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