Posted on 11/16/2013 8:27:11 PM PST by Ripliancum
Borrowing an ancient Hebrew word from an Old Testament text, one of America’s leading evangelical Christian scholars told nearly 2,000 young Mormons at Utah Valley University Friday that his faith and their faith, often at odds with each other through the years over doctrinal disparities, “need to find ways we can work together” to find “shalom,” or peace.
“God has placed us in the world, in this nation, and calls us to seek the shalom together,” said Dr. Richard J. Mouw, president emeritus of the Fuller Theological Seminary and noted author of such books as “Uncommon Decency: Christian Civility in an Uncivil World.”
“Evangelicals and Mormons have a lot to talk about and a lot to share about the hope that lies within each of us,” Mouw told a capacity crowd at the LDS Institute of Religion on the UVU campus. “We need to work together, learning from each other and bearing witness to the hope that shines within us.”
That hope, he said, emanates from the beliefs that evangelical Christians have in common with members of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints — specifically their shared belief in “the redemptive power of Jesus Christ.”...
(Excerpt) Read more at deseretnews.com ...
“I show that address to my students at Fuller,” Mouw said. ...
...“These are profound teachings that we both talk about,” Mouw said. “These are the things we need to be talking about rather than shouting at each other and demonizing each other.”
Pardon, but this guy is an idiot: The Mormon “gospel” has nothing in common with the Biblical truth of Salvation.
Is that a "punch line"? The Mormons teach that we can gods, ourselves. "Jesus" is just a word and tool for their propaganda...
Heavenly Father called a Grand Council to present His plan for our progression. (See Teachings of Presidents of the Church: Joseph Smith, 209, 511.) We learned that if we followed His plan, we would become like Him. We would gain a physical body, experience death and be resurrected; eventually we would have all power in heaven and earth; we would become heavenly parents and have spirit children just as He does (see Doctrine and Covenants 132:19-20.)
In this Grand Council, we learned as well that He would provide an earth for us where we would prove ourselves (Abraham 3:24-26). We would lose any remembrance of our heavenly home. This would be necessary so we could exercise our agency to choose righteousness over evil without the influence of the memory when we lived with Heavenly Father. We would be obedient in keeping God’s Commandments through a test of our faith in Him and not because of our knowledge or memory of Him. Our faith in the gift of a promised Savior would help us recognize the truth when we heard it again as well. (John 18:37). ...http://mormonsbelieve.org/tag/redemption
I have to agree with you on this one: most of the mormans I have known have been super nice guys who are great with their families, but their conception of our Savior is - shall we say - twisted beyond all recognition.
amen...
re: “. . . specifically their shared belief in “the redemptive power of Jesus Christ.”
The “Jesus” of Joseph Smith is not the same as the Jesus of the New Testament. How can there be any “shared belief”?
It is a theological/doctrinal travesty for this professor to be teaching in a supposedly evangelical seminary.
Yes, Christians and Mormons can share in some ethical beliefs, but in theology? There is little to none.
Guy is a moron.
LDS does not consider itself a branch of Christianity and doctrinally there is no way they could be.
Doesn’t make them bad people or prove we are better people.
Just good people who’s faiths are incompatible.
[Three part round]
1 [1]Shalom, my friends, [2] shalom, my friends, [3] shalom, shalom.
Shalom, my friends, shalom, my friends, shalom, shalom.
2 [1] Share peace, dear friends, [2] share peace, dear friends,
[3] God’s peace, God’s peace.
Share peace, dear friends, share peace, dear friends,
God’s peace, God’s peace.
If this is where Fuller Theological Seminary is at, they have undoubtedly joined the ‘falling away’ group discussed in 2 Thessalonians 2:3.....”Let no man deceive you by any means: for that day shall not come, except there come a falling away first, and that man of sin be revealed, the son of perdition;”
its a chasm of different beliefs....
now morals, values, ethics...these are shared beliefs.
but traditional Jews and Buddists and Muslims also have family values, so there you go....
How can two beliefs be "shared" when they are diametrically opposed to each other??? The Mormon Jesus is not the Jesus of Holy Scripture. The "redemptive power" of Jesus Christ in Mormonism is insufficient to fully save anyone and requires copious works and deeds to merit salvation while the Bible says that it is faith that the blood of Jesus Christ cleanses us from all sin and His death redeems us from hell by being a full and satisfactory payment for all our sins. Even the "heaven" of Mormonism is different than the Biblical one. The only agreement possible is to agree to disagree and maybe not be mean about it, but there is no way that we share in the same beliefs.
Exactly!
2Co 11:3-4 But I fear, lest by any means, as the serpent beguiled Eve through his subtilty, so your minds should be corrupted from the simplicity that is in Christ. For if he that cometh preacheth another Jesus (of the same kind)*, whom we have not preached, or if ye receive another spirit (of a different kind)*, which ye have not received, or another gospel (of a different kind)*, which ye have not accepted, ye might well bear with him.
* = parenthetical explanation of the Greek adjectives allon, heteron, heteron
That is, we may differ with the "gospel" of someone who preaches another Jesus of the same kind, a Jesus like He of the Bible, and put up with him for a while; but we ought not to endure someone who preaches another Christ of a different kind as do the Mormons. We ought to never establish any kind of tolerant association with him/them for any purpose, much less try to empower and participate in educational and evangelistic efforts with them, as Mouw seems to be attempting.
Furthermore, the theologian John says:
2Jn 1:6-11 And this is love, that we walk after his commandments. This is the commandment, That, as ye have heard from the beginning, ye should walk in it. For many deceivers are entered into the world, who confess not that Jesus Christ is come in the flesh. This is a deceiver and an antichrist. Look to yourselves, that we lose not those things which we have wrought, but that we receive a full reward. Whosoever transgresseth, and abideth not in the doctrine of Christ, hath not God. He that abideth in the doctrine of Christ, he hath both the Father and the Son.
If there come any unto you, and bring not this doctrine, receive him not into your house, neither bid him God speed: For he that biddeth him God speed is partaker of his evil deeds. (my bolding for emphasis)
Does not that say that a truly Christian scholar should never address or tolerantly debate one or more Mormons, but only plead with them to come to terms with the God of the Bible, and reject the doctrines of the Book of Mormon? Should he not at every opportunity ask them to immediately reject a false religion that leads one to Hell and the Lake of Fire?
John says not to invite them into your house, nor even wish them "have a nice day," for in doing so we would participate in their evil works. Is that not so? Is not Mouw doing exactly that, and bringing shame on Fuller Theological Seminary?
Do YOU disagree with ANYTHING your leaders said above??
“.I don’t think Mormons consider Christ anything more than just another prophet....”
That’s certainly not the case. We hold Christ to be the Savior and Redeemer of all mankind. The only possible means of salvation.
Fuller once turned out men committed to the gospel, but that was long ago. The past 40 years they have mostly turned out lightweight apostates. The largest local circus church in my area is pastored by a Fuller man. Untold thousands flock to hear him say absolutely nothing each weekend. He never gets close to preaching the gospel. One of his good friends is his Fuller classmate, Rick Warren.
60 years ago the missionary opening was “which is the true church?”. 40 years ago I had a conversation with a stake president in Denver where he said “we’re all Christians...”. The opening for mormons in the last 30 years has changed to that meme.
The follow up to the new opening is now “don’t you want to know the details of doing things the right (Mormon) way?”. If you want to become a pharisee with a very twisted view of God and His Son, you will keep listening to that garbage. It is a very graceless faith built on a hoax that used so called religious language masquerading as scripture.
We need to carefully think about this.
Evangelical Christians and Mormons share a significant percentage of agendas. We also share these values with Muslims.
All three groups are pro-family, value faith, want to be able to practice their faith in public, oppose deviancy,etc. A coalition of these three groups may be able to slow our society’s slid into ruin. I am willing to work with both groups to make the world less bad.
However, while all three have Christ in their theology, we see Him very differently. I am not willing to accept that either the Mormon or Muslim view of Jesus is equal to mine.
Therefore, the question, and challenge, is to see if there is a way to accomplish good in the world without compromising Christ.
I think we can do it.
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