Rev. Greg Johnson, Utah, COMPROMISES Scripture (his words!) & announced a NEW WAY with BYU Professor

BYU Newsnet ^ | January 21, 2005 | Emilie Foss

[whatsyourpoint]

BYU NewsNet

Evangelists visit BYU, Temple Square By Emilie Foss Daily Universe Staff Reporter 21 Jan 2005

Eighteen Bible students from the evangelical Bible Institute of Los Angeles, Biola, visited BYU campus Tuesday to build friendships, develop relationships and clarify doctrine.

...

“It’s time to put away the sticks and stones and do some serious talking,” said Robert Millet, an ancient scripture professor.

The group had studied a bit about the LDS faith and read the Book of Mormon prior to coming to Utah.

...

Millet and Pastor Greg Johnson, director of Standing Together Ministries in Utah, are trying to develop relationships between the two groups in a new way.

“We are trying to show the upcoming generation that we don’t have to be confrontational on truth,” Johnson said. “There is a lot of room for us to build on our compromise of scriptures.”

[whatsyourpoint]

Did you catch this? Millet and Johnson say the "NEW WAY" is to BUILD on COMPROMISE of SCRIPTURE. Sounds like the Reverend has been reading too much outside of the Bible. Reminds me the compromise in the 8th Article of Faith in the Mormon Church, "the Bible is the Word of God so far as it is translated correctly." Rev. Johnson and Robert Millet are the same two fellows who hired Ravi Zacharias to speak at the Mormon Tabernacle on November 14, 2004, which is where Dr. Richard Mouw also called evangelical Christians "sinners" for past evangelism of Mormons. Johnson could not have chosen a better word than "compromise." It fits.

[turnrightnow]

I am very familiar with BIOLA University. I'm got some questions to ask of folks on staff there. This idea of compromise is not typical of this university.

[NZerFromHK]

Are we witnessing the first compromise towards apostasy, towards one world faith, just as what happened to the mainline Protestants in the early 20th century, or to Fuller Theological Seminary in 1972?

[Old Mountain man]

Well, we don't have to compromise our beliefs. We are right. Evangelicals are entirely wrong in their approach to us.

[Choose Ye This Day]

Welcome to Free Republic.

So, what IS your point?

Christians can't learn from each other?

[azcap]

Why do evangelicals attack that line in the Mormon 8th Article of Faith "We believe the Bible is the Word of God so far as it is translated correctly..." Almost all Evangelicals believe the same thing. They hate to hear Mormons state it but how many pastors that attack that line are willing to say that the NIVIL gender neutral translation of the Bible or the NOAB translation that is "homosexual friendly"? are the Word of God. They are corruptions of the Word of God. It is reasonable for Evangelicals to call the Book of Mormon heresy but to argue that all translations of the Bible are the correct Word of God is foolish.

[xzins]

What is the very best face you can put on "our compromise of scripture?"

1. That they had compromised on HOW to approach scripture...

2. That they and the mormons had compromised on some point of scripture in which THEY gave in, but the evangelicals did not.

[whatsyourpoint]

Hey, it WASN'T the BIOLA team who suggested compromise, it was the BYU associate, Rev. Greg Johnson. I don't know if he is from BIOLA. All we can see is that he speaks at BYU in some capacity.

[whatsyourpoint]

Ahhh. So you too are familiar with the apostacy at Fuller. I had friends move on to other schools due to that. Your observation is keen. Apostacy does not begin at BYU, it is one continued movement. The Protestant Reformation spoke to this.

[whatsyourpoint]

Certainly Christians can learn from each other. The point, since you missed it, is that Mormonism has always been aloof of true Christianity from the start. They, by their own accord, claimed in 1820 that no church was right, all the creeds were an abomination to Christ, and that all the believers were corrupt. Only Joe had the truth. You can read that in his scriptures that he wrote called the Pearl of Great Price, in a book named after himself, Joseph Smith 1. He stated clearly, "I have learned for myself that Presbyterianism is false." He also condemned Baptist, Methodists, and Presbyterians by name claiming that these were apostate. All Christianity has done through the years is kindly correct this misguided young man (Smith was 14) and tell him that he was wrong, according to the Bible. Jesus said that the gates of hell shall NOT prevail against his Church (Matthew 16:18). Smith said they were all wrong, an abomination, and all corrupt. Anyone is free to take their choice between Jesus and Joseph, and, yes, learn from each other. If one learns from Smith, then they have to deny Jesus in the Bible. If they learn from Jesus, then they have to deny Smith. The law of non-contradiction rules that both cannot be true simultaneously.

[whatsyourpoint]

You may be comparing apples to oranges. Joseph Smith wrote the 8th Article of Faith for the Mormon Church. He becomes his best commentator on what he means when he speaks of Bible translations. He wrote, "I believe the Bible as it read when it came from the pen of the original writers. Ignorant translators, careless transcribers, or designing and corrupt priests have committed many errors.(Teachings of the Prophet Joseph Smith, p.327)" Although he never showed in his lifetime how these "evil" people did this, he translated the Bible for his followers in what is called the Joseph Smith Translation, of which many parts are found in the footnotes of the Mormon Church edition of the King James Bible. In the Song of Solomon, he erased the entire book, claiming it was not inspired. He can hardly say he believed the "Bible," which includes the Song of Solomon, and then eradicate that book while still claiming to believe the "Bible." What he believes in, then, is a distorted view of the Bible. Other changes that he made occur heavily in the book of Genesis, where he makes Moses prophesy of him and the coming of the Book of Mormon. In the book of Revelation, he adds to and subtracts from the words of that prophecy, which any reader knows from chapter 22 what God will do to those who add to or subtract from the book of Revelation. So much did Joe add and subtract from the book of Revelation, that they could not fit all of it in the footnotes, so the placed it in a spacial appendix. This is my point about the 8th article of faith in the Mormon Church. It actually corrupts the Bible instead of getting closer to the original Hebrew, Aramaic, and Greek texts.

[whatsyourpoint]

Rev. Greg Johnson did not go as deeply into the subject as what you did, so the answer is not in the article.

[Choose Ye This Day]

Poppycock.

Again, welcome to Free Republic.

[whatsyourpoint]

Saying poppycock does not answer anything I wrote, it only says that you have a different opinion. I can live with us having different opinions. Besides, it was BYU's quotation about Johnson from his talk, so they must have considered it important.

[P-Marlowe]

Evangelicals are entirely wrong in their approach to us.

Which approach is that?

BTW aren't you guys out there evangelizing the evangelicals?

[BiolaJ]

I happen to personally know Greg Johnson, and for him to say that is not even a possibility. He personally claims he was misquoted and details of that sort are being worked out. BYU has misquoted him and other associates of his in StandingTogether many times before, so this is nothing new, and nothing to alarm about.