Friday Minute: 10 member-missionary tips [Real Mormonism]

In a recent survey by pollster Gary Lawrence of how Americans view "Mormonism," a whopping 77 percent said they were not sure Mormons are Christians.

Understanding how the public views us can improve our responses to gospel questions.

2. Ditch the lingo. Gary Lawrence is a respected pollster and adviser to the missionary department. He suggests we use simple terms to which our Christian friends will relate: Use "Christianity" instead of "gospel," "re-established" instead of "restoration," and "men changed" instead of "apostasy."

3. Stay on message. Only 12 percent of Americans know our central message. It is this: We are the re-established, original Christian church...

4. Trust. When we earn our friends’ trust, they will trust our message. Because we are the re-established, original Christian church, we believe the heavens are open. Share the general conference talks with your friends, and invite them to trust that the heavens are open to them.

9. Use humor. Lawrence suggests we not get defensive. When friends ask whether Mormons believe in the Bible, you might say, “Of course we believe in the Bible; we wrote it!” Then explain: "Our brethren in Christ’s day wrote it, and we are Christ’s brethren of the latter days."

From the article: Use humor. Lawrence suggests we not get defensive. When friends ask whether Mormons believe in the Bible, you might say, “Of course we believe in the Bible; we wrote it!” Then explain: "Our brethren in Christ’s day wrote it, and we are Christ’s brethren of the latter days."

(Mormons writing the Bible? Yeah, that is humorous of a contention to make. And here we thought Joseph Smith and his disciples were anti-contention...more falsehoods by the deceived ones)

From the article: ...a whopping 77 percent said they were not sure Mormons are Christians.

Of the rest -- 23 % -- I'm sure there were some "not sure" responses...but that still means that probably almost one in five Americans are deceived about Mormons being Christian.

Simply put, Christians are monotheists; Mormons by definition are polytheists -- they believe many gods exist and their scriptures teach to worship three of them and acknowledge many more than that as "true" gods.

If mainstream Mormons can rule "out of bounds" -- and ex-communicate somebody with too many wives (say, a fundamentalist Mormon)...certainly, Christians can rule "out of bounds" Mormons who have too many gods.

From the article: 2. Ditch the lingo. Gary Lawrence is a respected pollster and adviser to the missionary department. He suggests we use simple terms to which our Christian friends will relate: Use "Christianity" instead of "gospel," "re-established" instead of "restoration," and "men changed" instead of "apostasy."
3. Stay on message. Only 12 percent of Americans know our central message. It is this: We are the re-established, original Christian church...
4. Trust. When we earn our friends’ trust, they will trust our message.

Well, #s #2 thru #4 is sure as strange of a juxtaposition as you could possibly get.

In #2, Mormons Monahan and Lawrence want grassroot Mormons to dilute the tough teachings of long-term Mormonism. They don't want Mormons to let the cat out of the bag that they teach all Christian denominations are in apostasy and that they deem all such members as "apostates." So they want to pull an Obama and simply talk about "change" -- when they believe the ones they want to change are in reality apostate heretics!

And then they want to also soft-peddle the idea of a restoration...altho "re-establish" isn't all that much softer of a concept. IOW, with this word they're still making the claim that Christ's Christianity became wholly unstable.

And, so, even though Mormons are supposed to soft-peddle what they really believe, we are to somehow "trust" them (#4). How ironic.

And then for "toppers," their main "message" (#3) is that only Mormonism is the "original church." Hmm...so that doesn't contradict #2?

For clarity, Mormon "scripture" teaches that Mormons believe they are the "only true and living church on the face of the earth." (D&C 1:30) Which means, of course, that they believe the rest of the other churches are supposedly false and dead. They teach that 100% of Christian creeds are NOT God-honoring and in fact are "an abomination" -- a word that means "putrid."

Think of it as ordering a Saturday night pizza. You say to the Mormon taking your order, "I want a creed pizza." And the Mormon says, "Will that be 'original' crust (Mormon) or crusty 'putrid'? (what Mormons think of Christianity)"

But, hey, Mormons, if you work on your #2 diluted delivery, you can at least fool some of the people some of the time!

Mormons are not Christians. They're Mormons.

In the embryonic stages of the development of Mormonism, Joseph Smith claimed that he had a heavenly vision. In that vision celestial personages told him that all existing Christian churches were wrong, all their deeds were abominations, all their professors corrupt and that Smith had been chosen to restore a church that had disappeared from the face of the earth. Joseph Smith wanted to make a sharp dichotomy between what he was bringing into existence as a cultic movement and all other Christians. Now Mormons want to sayt that there’s virtually no difference or distinction between what they teach and what Christianity teaches. This is preposterous!

Mormons use Christian language but they pour different meanings into the words. For example, a Christian will believe that God is Spirit but Joseph Smith taught that God himself was once as we are now and is an exalted man and sits on the enthroned in yonder heavens. They hold to a plurality of gods. As man is, God once was. As God is, man may become. In Christianity, Jesus is the self existent Creator of all things. In Mormonism, He is the spirit brother of Lucifer who was conceived in heaven by a celestial mother and then came in flesh as a result of the Father having sex with the Virgin Mary.

Virtually every single theological heresy begins with the misconception of the nature of God. But if you look at what Mormons believe about heaven they believe something completely different than what a Christian believes. Christians believe we are going to stand before God dressed in the spotless robes of Christ’s Righteousness. In other words, we get into heaven not by what we do but by a foreign righteousness that is laid to our account — the righteousness of Jesus Christ. But a Mormon contends that they will appear before heavenly Father dressed in a fig leaf apron and holding good works in their hands. And if you look at their concept of heaven, their concept is of a three pronged heaven. You have a celestial heaven and virtually everybody gets to make it there. Then they have a terrestrial heaven and that is for lukewarm Mormons, religious people and for a wide variety of those who accept the Mormon gospel. And then you have the celestial Kingdom and only temple Mormons make it to the celestial Kingdom and in the celestial Kingdom you have three different levels and if you reach the third level of the celestial kingdom then you can become a god of your own planet; in other words you can become for all intents and purposes what Jesus Christ is. And so again I think the point needs to be made — no they use Christian terminology but they pour their meanings into the words. I could go on but I will not.

If Mormon's wish to go to heaven they will need to reject Mormonism and become Christians.

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