Posted on 06/08/2009 6:38:16 AM PDT by restornu
Christians are fickle when it comes to allegiance to a denomination.
According to a Pew Forum study in April, 44 percent of Protestants have changed denominations at least once.
Christy Darlington of Colorado Springs, for example, explored the ideas of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints and the Jehovah's Witnesses more than 10 years ago before returning to her childhood faith of evangelical Christianity.
But what sets Darlington apart is that in 1997 she formed Witnesses for Jesus in response to her experiences with those denominations.
Witnesses for Jesus, a nonprofit evangelical Christian organization supported by donations, helps disaffected Mormons and Jehovah's Witnesses come to terms with their experiences and, perhaps, embrace the evangelical understanding of religious salvation.
Did Darlington, 32, experience a traumatic event within the Mormon Church and the Jehovah's Witnesses that motivated her to form Witnesses for Jesus?
Well, no. In fact, she was never a member of either church and says she kind of liked the worshipers. But upon re-embracing the literal truth of the Bible as interpreted by evangelicals, Darlington was compelled to warn others about what she calls false doctrine.
"We are not out to bash the Mormon Church and Jehovah's Witnesses," said Darlington, who runs the organization out of her home.
"Our focus is to get people to see the difference (between those faiths and evangelical Christianity) and make their own choice."
Witnesses for Jesus has 35 Colorado Springs members and 200 more online nationwide through the nonprofit's three Web sites (www.4mormon.com, www.4jehovah.org, www.4witness.org), which gently mock and impugn the doctrines of the two denominations.
Meetings are free to attend and include fellowship, Bible study and guest speakers who rail against Mormonism and the Jehovah's Witnesses.
The group's next meeting is June 20 in a Colorado Springs park that Darlington won't reveal because of security concerns. She expects a handful of people to attend.
Organization member Tressa Ballard, 62, left the Jehovah's Witnesses in 1990 and has since embraced evangelical Christianity. The Colorado Springs resident sometimes speaks at the meetings about how four of her five children who remained in the church refuse to talk to her since she left the faith. "People can leave, but they will be shunned by family and friends," Ballard said.
But Martin Ringle, spokesman for the local Jehovah's Witnesses churches, said shunning is not part of the faith. "Sounds like a personal decision her kids have made," Ringle said.
A sometime speaker for Witnesses for Jesus is Phillip Naugle, a 64-year-old Colorado Springs resident and a Mormon until 2000. Now an evangelical Christian, Naugle said that leaving the Mormon Church is difficult because its theology insists that the faith is the only way to be saved.
Naugle dismisses the Book of Mormon by Joseph Smith as a plagiarized work written by "a member of a cult," but the Bible is the work of God, he said. "There is nothing in the Bible that can be disproved."
Mark McConkie, president of the Colorado Springs Stake of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, respects Naugle's views.
"A bedrock principle of our faith is to allow all people the privilege of worshipping God according to their own consciences," McConkie said in a statement. "This principle even applies to former members who have become disaffected."
Darlington claims to hold a similar view to McConkie's about being open to different belief systems, but she's also firm in her belief that Mormons and Jehovah's Witnesses follow false doctrine.
"I didn't like how they looked at the Bible differently," Darlington said. "They don't teach that Jesus Christ is the only way to heaven."
•The Church’s missionary program is one of its most recognized characteristics. Mormon missionaries can be seen on the streets of hundreds of major cities in the world as well as in thousands of smaller communities.
•More than 50,000 missionaries are serving missions for The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints at any one time. Most are young people under the age of 25, serving in nearly 350 missions throughout the world.
Given Brigham Young's admonition that one needed something to the effect of Joe Smith's certification to get into heaven and the emphasis so many even here on FR put on the book of James and works, that verse seem oddly out of place.
They (the LDS) don’t have to “organize” to protest other faiths, it is in their doctrine already and is a natural part of their day in and day out operations.
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there are the same opportunities for all faiths to have a natural part of their daily operatrions!
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The LDS does not spent time organizing to bashing another faith in the public square.
there is a differents between proselyting the word of Jesus Christ vs an organized hate machine!
Oh, bullshaloney.
Perhaps they have received threats.
Anyway the point is as a whole LDS do not organized to protest another faith!
•The Church’s missionary program is one of its most recognized characteristics. Mormon missionaries can be seen on the streets of hundreds of major cities in the world as well as in thousands of smaller communities.
•More than 50,000 missionaries are serving missions for The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints at any one time. Most are young people under the age of 25, serving in nearly 350 missions throughout the world.
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I would hope there was organization....
D&C 132: 8
8 Behold, mine house is a house of order, saith the Lord God, and not a house of confusion.
D&C 88
119 Organize yourselves; prepare every needful thing; and establish a house, even a house of prayer, a house of fasting, a house of faith, a house of learning, a house of glory, a house of order, a house of God;
1 Cor. 14: 33
33 For God is not the author of confusion, but of peace, as in all churches of the saints.
Proselyte is of the Lord!
An organized hate machine Protestors, is NOT of the Lord
James 3: 16
16 For where envying and strife is, there is confusion and every evil work.
You still have not pointed out your reason for that statement!
AGAIN: I asked why are these people afraid and you replied because God gave us free will.
Sorry I have no clue what you are talking about why don’t you ask them!
AGAIN: I asked why are these people afraid and you replied because God gave us free will.
Sense you ask why do you think they are afraid like to hear what your what your mind is working on?
Huh? You got me now because I have know idea what you are trying to say here.
Sense you ask why do you think they are afraid like to hear what your what your mind is working on?
Huh? You got me now because I have know idea what you are trying to say here.
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It’s your question for some reason you are asking it?
It was in one of your post implying that I could be a liar or delusional!
Sense you ask why do you think they are afraid like to hear what your what your mind is working on? It is the previous sentence that you wrote I have know idea what you are talking about. It is like trying to read gobbly gook.
par for the course why even bother with this kind of source!
Sorry, Resty, that's just not always the case. How can you state this in such an absolute way -- a way that disagrees with something Jesus is on record to have said?
"Woe to you, teachers of the law and Pharisees, you hypocrites! You travel over land and sea to win a single convert, and when he becomes one, you make him twice as much a son of hell as you are." (Matthew 23:15)
Jesus is saying to proselyte someone into becoming a fellow legalist isn't exactly a "good" thing. So how can you claim otherwise? Will you admit you mistated on your comment?
Proselyte is of the Lord!
Sorry, Resty, that’s just not always the case. How can you state this in such an absolute way — a way that disagrees with something Jesus is on record to have said?
“Woe to you, teachers of the law and Pharisees, you hypocrites! You travel over land and sea to win a single convert, and when he becomes one, you make him twice as much a son of hell as you are.” (Matthew 23:15)
Jesus is saying to proselyte someone into becoming a fellow legalist isn’t exactly a “good” thing. So how can you claim otherwise? Will you admit you mistated on your comment?
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I am sure in your mind you feel justified in what you are saying.
But in the end it is only your opinion and nothing more!
Resty, you cite Eph. 4:11...
but where are your titled pastors?
where are your titled evangelists?
Furthermore, how do you think you feel as a mainstream Mormon when you learn by the power of the Holy Ghost that...
...to him be glory in the church and in Christ Jesus throughout all generations, for ever and ever! Amen. (Eph. 3:21)
Did you know, Resty, that the apostle Paul gave this prophesy? "glory in the church...throughout ALL generations, for ever and ever?" Was he guilty of a false prophesy, then, if the Mormons are right?
Why do you seemingly disregard Eph. 3 if Eph. 4 is so relevant to you?
And you also cited Eph. 4:7: But unto every one of us is given grace according to the measure of the gift of Christ. Why do Lds, including yourself, ignore this verse in favor of Book of Mormon verses like Helaman 12:24?
And may God grant, in his great fulness, that men might be brought unto repentance and good works, that they might be restored unto grace for grace, according to their works.
So which verse do you favor, Resty? Eph. 4:7 where grace is given according to the gift of Christ -- or where grace is given according to the works of man? (Your Book of Mormon leaves you in a direct contradictory conflict)
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