We Have Sinned Against You - Leading Evangelical Apologizes to Mormons

'We Have Sinned Against You' - A leading evangelical speaks at the Mormon Tabernacle and says evangelicals have spread lies about LDS beliefs.

For the first time in 105 years, non-Mormons mounted the pulpit at the Mormon Tabernacle in Salt Lake City on Nov. 14. The event, dubbed an "Evening of Friendship," was organized by Standing Together, a network of 100 evangelical churches trying to improve relations with members of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. Historical animosity dating back to the founding of the LDS Church has heightened in recent years between the two groups, particularly in the 1990s, when high-profile evangelical leaders said that Mormons are not Christians and the Southern Baptist Convention held one of its annual meetings in Salt Lake City, partially with the goal of converting Mormons to evangelical Protestantism.

In what the Deseret News referred to as "stunningly candid" comments, Fuller Theological Seminary president and Beliefnet columnist Richard J. Mouw apologized to Mormons for evangelicals' tendency to distort the truth about Latter-day Saints' beliefs. "Let me state it clearly. We evangelicals have sinned against you," Mouw said. The speech is making the rounds among surprised and generally pleased evangelical and Mormon groups. We reprint the remarks below.

It is difficult for me to find adequate words to express how thrilled I am to be here this evening. Here we are, evangelical Protestants and members of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, gathered together in this Salt Lake Tabernacle, for an event that is described as "An Evening of Friendship."

I am not being melodramatic when I say that this is surely an historic occasion. To be sure, there have long been friendships between some evangelicals and some LDS folks. But they have not appeared on the public radar screen. Our public relations between our two communities have been-to put it mildly-decidedly unfriendly. From the very beginning, when Joseph Smith organized his church in 1830, my evangelical forebears hurled angry accusations and vehement denunciations at the Mormon community-a practice that continues from some evangelical quarters even into this present day. And I think it is fair to say that some Mormons have on occasion responded in kind. Friendship with each other has not come easily for our two communities.

But in recent times things have begun to change. Evangelicals and Mormons have worked together on important matters of public morality. Here in Utah, the Standing Together ministry has been willing to take some considerable risks in countering the more aggressive and disruptive evangelical attacks against the LDS church. And Pastor Greg Johnson's well-attended dialogues with Professor Bob Millet have done much to model a new spirit of frank but friendly exchange about important faith topics. And now this evening we are experiencing the gracious hospitality of the LDS leadership, who have welcomed us all into this meeting place, which has played-and continues to play-such an important role in the life of the Mormon community.

On a personal level, over the past half-dozen years I have been a member of a small group of evangelical scholars who have been engaged in lengthy closed-door discussions about spiritual and theological matters with a small group of our LDS counterparts. We have not been afraid to argue strenuously with each other, but our arguments have been conducted in a sincere desire genuinely to understand each other-and in the process we have formed some deep bonds of friendship.

I know that I have learned much in this continuing dialogue, and I am now convinced that we evangelicals have often seriously misrepresented the beliefs and practices of the Mormon community. Indeed, let me state it bluntly to the LDS folks here this evening: we have sinned against you. The God of the Scriptures makes it clear that it is a terrible thing to bear false witness against our neighbors, and we have been guilty of that sort of transgression in things we have said about you. We have told you what you believe without making a sincere effort first of all to ask you what you believe.

We have made much of the need to provide you with a strong defense of traditional Christian convictions, regularly quoting the Apostle Peter's mandate that we present to people like you a reasoned account of the hope that lies with in us-but we have not been careful to follow the same Apostle's counsel that immediately follows that mandate, when he tells us that we must always make our case with "gentleness and reverence" toward those with whom we are speaking. Indeed, we have even on occasion demonized you, weaving conspiracy theories about what the LDS community is "really" trying to accomplish in the world. And even at our best, we have-and this is true of both of our communities-we have talked past each other, setting forth oversimplified and distorted accounts of what the other group believes. I have formed some wonderful friendships with Mormons in the past few years. These friends have helped me to see the ways in which I have often misinterpreted Mormon thought. To be sure, as a result of those conversations I also remained convinced that there are very real issues of disagreement between us-and that some of these issues are matters of eternal signficiance. But we can now discuss these topics as friends And tonight many more of our friends have come together in this place for a very public and large-scale "Evening of Friendship." God be praised!

In just a month and a half we will greet the year 2005, which marks the 200th anniversary of the birth of Joseph Smith. During this year there will be many occasions to pay special attention to Joseph's life and teachings, and I hope many in the evangelical community will take part in those events. But this evening we are not here to talk about Joseph Smith, but about the One whose birth we will celebrate again just before the bicentennial year of Joseph's birth makes its appearance. This is the One about whose birth we sing-in words, I should add, that many of us love to hear sung by that great choir that sings these words in this Tabernacle-"the hopes and fears of all the years are met in thee tonight."

What a wonderful thing it is that we can meet together to talk about the Lord Jesus and about who he is and what he has done on our behalf. There is much here to talk about. I personally take great encouragement from words that Joseph Smith uttered on the occasion of the founding of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints in April of 1830: "we know," Joseph said, "that all men must repent and believe on the name of Jesus Christ, and worship the Father in his name, and endure in faith on his name to the end, or they cannot be saved in the kingdom of God." And then he added: "And we know that justification through the grace of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ is just and true, and we know also that sanctification through the grace of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ is just and true, to all those who love and serve God with all their mights, minds, and strength."

I greet you this evening in that spirit-as one who wants more than anything else to love and serve God with all my might, mind and strength, in the power made available by the amazing grace that sent the Lord Jesus to Bethlehem's manger, and to the Garden of Gethsemane, and to the Cross of Calvary, where he shed his blood to pay the debt of our sin-a debt that we could never pay on our own.

This is the spirit in which Ravi Zacharias is going to speak to us this evening-the spirit of devotion to the One whose name is above every name, the One who alone is mighty to save, and before whom someday every knee will bow and every tongue will confess that he is Lord to the glory of the Father. May this wonderful "Evening of Friendship" point us all to that great day. Thank you and God bless you.

This was also part of Mouw’s response to criticism he received after his address you have posted above.

For the record: I do not believe Joseph Smith was a true prophet of God; I do not accept the Book of Mormon as a legitimate revelation; I do not believe that temple baptism saves; I do not believe that all people will be saved. And it is precisely because of this that when my good friend Bob Millet says that his only plea when he gets to heaven is “the mercy and merit of Jesus Christ,” I want to respond by saying with enthusiasm, “Let’s keep talking!”

I hope this helps a little. I am deeply sorry for causing distress in the evangelical community. I make no apology for wanting to foster gentle and reverent dialogue with Mormon friends. But I want people to be upset with me only about things I really meant to say—and I failed on this occasion, on one important point, to make my case clearly enough. Blessings!

Richard Mouw’s response to criticism:

Dear Greg:

Thanks for your note in which you report the further questions that some of your friends have about my assessment of Mormon thought regarding the person and work of Christ. Here are a few elaborations that you can pass on to those who have raised the sorts of questions you describe:

(1) I have talked to enough Mormon missionaries at my front door to know that there is a significant gap between what most of them say—and have been taught—and what we are hearing from our LDS scholar friends. But there is still a discernible change. Many of them watch Christian television and have a kind of mix of views—some very far removed from biblical teaching and others fairly close. Indeed one young missionary told me that the person whose message he most admires is Billy Graham. On the level of LDS scholarship, we have talked at length with people we have come to know very well and we are all convinced—and not just me but folks with impeccable evangelical credentials—that our Mormon friends are aware of the popular teachings and are determined to influence things in the direction of salvation by grace alone.

(2) What no one seems to want to pay attention to is that I did say in my remarks that we continue to have serious differences, including matters that have “eternal consequences.” I do believe that. But I am also convinced that things are moving—on the leadership level—in a direction in which we can hope that in the not too distant future Mormons will regularly hear from their own leaders that salvation cannot be earned—not even in part—by good works, but only by accepting the gift of sovereign grace that has been made possible through the shed blood of Christ on Calvary. I am more concerned that this core Gospel message be proclaimed within the LDS than that there be a wholesale repudiation of all Mormon distinctives. I praise the Lord for those individuals who have met the Jesus that we evangelicals proclaim and have left Mormonism. But I also deeply desire that those who continue in the LDS will hear the basic claims of the Gospel proclaimed within that community.

(3) I think the King Follett Discourse is horrible. It is another Gospel. But it is simply a fact that it—along with the “What man once was...” saying—are not canonical, and this means that these teachings are much easier for Mormons to eventually repudiate. I am committed to working toward that goal.

(4) On question of the shedding of blood in Gethsemane (I am embarrassed that I wrote “Golgotha”) and on Calvary: I see no problem in including the former in the atoning work, as long as we insist that Calvary is, as we have always said it is, “the finished work of Christ.” In my thoroughly orthodox Dutch Calvinist tradition, the sixteenth century Heidelberg Catechism says, in answer to the question,

“What do you confess when you say that He suffered? “ the following: “ During all the time He lived on earth, but especially at the end, Christ bore in body and soul the wrath of God against the sin of the whole human race. Thus, by His suffering, as the only atoning sacrifice, He has

redeemed our body and soul from everlasting damnation, and obtained for us the grace of God, righteousness, and eternal life” (Q&A 37). I have argued in my writings to my own evangelical constituency—apart from any attention to Mormonism—that we have typically underplayed the ways in which his suffering throughout his life is essential to his atoning work. If He had only come to earth to spend three hours on the Cross that would not have done it. He was, after all, the great High Priest who suffered in all the ways that we suffer, and lived in perfect obedience to the Father.

(5) I prayerfully support the ministries of those who seek to evangelize Mormons in predominantly LDS communities. I must say, though, that given the harsh sarcastic words and name-calling that have been directed to me in emails from evangelical leaders since the Tabernacle evening , I do not doubt that, given their rhetorical habits, they have sinned against Mormons on occasion by distorting and/or oversimplifying the issues.

I hope you find some of this helpful. Please feel free to pass this on to anyone who cares.

Under the Mercy,

Rich

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Richard J. Mouw
President and Professor of Christian Philosophy
Fuller Theological Seminary
135 North Oakland Avenue, Pasadena, CA 91182
626/584-5211(Office); 626/795-8767 (FAX); rjmouw@fuller.edu

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