SE021509
WAR OF RELIGION
3. Door Knockers.
There’s probably not a family represented in this room that hasn’t had a visit at their
door from members of the Jehovah’s Witnesses or Latter Day Saints (also known as
Mormons). And maybe you were intimidated by those visits, because you’ve heard
these are cults, which brings to mind fiery eyed religious lunatics. Or maybe you were
intrigued because of their clear wholesomeness and sincerity.
What you DO know is that they talk about Jesus, so these must be Christians, right?
Well, what we’re going to see that with some Christian sects, if they are Christians, then
the rest of us who don’t accept their beliefs could not possibly be Christians. Now, you
may think it’s harsh for me to categorically rule out some Christians sects like Mormons
and JW’s from Christendom, but in fact, that is exactly what they have done to the rest
of Christendom!
- Joseph Smith was the founder of Mormonism, and in his first vision two gods
appeared to him talked to him about all Christian denominations and said:
o “…join none of them, for they are all wrong… all their creeds are an
abomination in my sight; their [pastors] are all corrupt…”
- Charles Taze Russell was the founder of the Jehovah’s Witnesses and his
church is adamant that they are the only ones who fully follow the teachings of
the Bible, thus they’re the only real Christians.
The deal at AC3 is, we don’t’ think we’re the only true followers of Jesus. In fact, we
work a lot with other denominations in the town of Marysville and around the world
whom we believe to be partners with us in Christ. But then there’s these other groups
that claim to be special followers of Jesus Christ. So that raises questions:
- If Jesus is the answer, why are his followers so divided? There are over 30,000
different Christian denominations in the world!
- If Jesus is the Key, who holds the key?
- If Jesus is the Way, who of his many conflicting followers knows the Way?
REVERSE COMPATIBILITY
To begin to answer that question let me present to us a simple test: It’s a test that
Christians have been using since there have been Christians, because there have been
divisions inside of Christianity. Here’s the test as stated in 175 A.D. by the early church
father Tertullian. [when faced with the Gnostic sects]:
• What is to settle the point for us, except if be that principle of time, which
rules that the authority lies with that which shall be found to be more
ancient…
So if all sects of Christianity derive from the teachings and mission of Jesus, those that
are truest to the Founder will be the ones whose testimony about Jesus is the
OLDEST. That’s a fair test, don’t you think? Closest to Jesus is the truest version of
Christianity. Less chance for corruption.
Just like with computer programs, with Christianity you want reverse compatibility.
You know when you buy a new computer, but you have all these old programs that you
still use and love? You don’t want to buy a program that can’t read your old data, or a
computer that makes you start from scratch. You want the new program to work with
the old:
REVERSE COMPATIBILITY.
Even within the New Testament era, Paul practiced this requirement of “backwards
compatibility”. Paul did a lot of preaching in the Roman world, but after he had built
many churches, he came under fire from Jewish Christians who thought he was passing
on incorrect teaching about Jesus.
So Paul goes back to Jerusalem to talk to Peter and James and other disciples which
we read about in Gal 2:1-10. Why does he make this trip? To cross check his
message. He says, “to see that I was not running my race in vain.” To make sure he
was being faithful to the truth and to check with others who had lived and talked with
Jesus directly in the flesh. So he sets a nice precedent that we ought to always check
new teaching about Jesus with the apostles teaching.
And since those Apostles are all dead now, where can we find their teaching? In the
BIBLE!
Now, if you know anything about Mormonism and Jehovah’s witnesses you know that
they accept the Bible as God’s Word. So technically doesn’t that mean they must be
teaching a Christianity consistent with the test of backwards compatibility? Aren’t they
reaching back to the oldest tradition when they uphold the Bible?
Yes, they are. But in both these cases, as we’ll see, they add to, or subtract from it.
And when they do that, it’s like photocopying from a copy instead of from the original.
Every copy of Christianity that builds on the original (the historical Jesus most reliably
reflected in the NT) is imperfect – BUT those that build on a copy of the original are
even MORE imperfect. And eventually, do this long enough, and the copy hardly even
resembles the original.
We I think with an honest analysis, any inquiring mind will see that in fact, LDS and
JW’s are new religions, not restorations of an old religion as they claim. So let’s
analyze these sects that think they’re the only true Christians and apply the backwards
compatibility test to see for ourselves.
HISTORY OF MORMONISM
First some history on the LDS. In 1827 Joseph Smith had a vision of the angel Moroni
who showed him the location of golden plates and special Seer Stones, buried for
centuries in upper state NY. These plates he claimed, were actually prophetic writings
of the lost tribes of Israel who came to American in the 600’s BC. They built a thriving
JEWISH civilization here and that means that Native Americans are really descended
from the Jews.
This amazing story was revealed on the golden tablets inscribed with an ancient form of
writing. How did Smith know what they said? He translated them supernaturally with
the Seer Stones. What the eye witnesses observed, was Smith putting the stones into
his hat, and then put the hat over his face. Then he would get visions of words which
he would dictate to a scribe.
The irony is that while God seemed to go to great trouble to preserve the golden
plates, Smith never actually used them in translating the Book of Mormon.
The plates were taken back up to heaven, but 3 witnesses said they had seen them, so
with that testimony, Mormonism gained converts and momentum. They started in New
York, but were later forced to move because of persecution everywhere they went, from
Missouri, to Ohio, to Illinois.
In Illinois, a local newspaper wrote unsavory things about Smith and his movement so
the Mormons destroyed the printing press. Joseph Smith when to prison to await trial
and an angry mob came and murdered him. Brigham Young took over leadership and
in the 1850’s the movement landed in Utah where today 1/3 of the 17 million Mormons
worldwide still live.
BELIEFS
Now lets stack up the beliefs of Mormons along side biblical Christianity and it will give
you a better indication that in fact, after copying from a copy, eventually the result is
almost unrecognizable as the original.
GOD
For starters, Mormons are not monotheists. They do not believe in one God. They
believe in the plurality of gods. Polytheists. They also believe that God is not a Spirit,
but that God lives inside space and time and matter with a body. God was once like we
are, he is an exalted human.
Christians believe that God is uniquely eternal, the great “I AM” outside of space
and time and matter, all powerful, omnipotent.
JESUS CHRIST
When it comes to Jesus, Mormons believe he is a literal Son of God, and Lucifer the
Devil was his brother. This is in keeping with their belief in many gods. They wouldn’t
deny that Jesus was God, because they think you could be a God just like Jesus some
day. They do believe Jesus came to our world and went to the cross as Savior for our
sins.
Christians believe that Jesus as the Son of God, was one with the Father in
being, that they are not two Gods, but with Holy Spirit are three Personalities
inside the Being of One God – a doctrine known as the Trinity. – that’s confusing.
Invent that? No, a result of taking the Bible seriously.
MAN
The Mormon view of human nature says somewhere in heaven, spirits exist and are
needing human babies for a chance to have a body so they can procreate. This person,
can become a God in the afterlife and populate their own planet, just like God did with
our planet. This is the highest of three levels of heaven. Celestial Marriage required.
Christians believe that people are made in God’s image, but we do not have premortal
existence…We are fallen and separated from God because of our sin.
What about…
SALVATION?
The Mormon church holds that Jesus Christ is a savior from sin which assures everyone
gets to the lowest or Terrestrial heaven. However, the only way to achieve the highest
heaven is good works, faith and baptism by an approved Mormon priest.
In Christianity salvation is always by God’s grace and through faith. Good works
follow true conversion, but forgiveness and restorations of relationship is all
God’s work from first to last.
BIBLE
Finally, Scripture, and this is the linchpin, because here we’re talking about the source
of every other belief and practice. To go back to our copier analogy, it answers the
question what are you copying from? In Mormonism, the Bible is God’s Word only as
interpreted correctly. The works of Joseph Smith are equally authoritative.
In Christianity, the Bible is the Word of God only and it’s not an open document
you add too. There are other good Christian writings, but nothing with the
authority of the Bible.
Now why? As time goes on, if God is living and can still speak, why not more
Scripture? A fresh word for fresh times! The answer is simple: If Jesus was who he
said he was, who Christians have believed him to be, Divine, then he is the highest
revelation of God. Why would we ever need or want MORE than God himself to find
our way to God?
Now here’s where I want to draw out our backwards compatibility test so you get it.
When it comes to Mormons they have their own bible. One key verse reads like this:
Romans 4:16: 16 Therefore ye are justified of faith and works, through grace, to
the end the promise might be sure to all…
Now what do all other translations say:
Rom 4:16 Therefore, the promise comes by faith, so that it may be by grace and
may be guaranteed to all…
Here you can see that Smith added the words, “AND WORKS” to the requirement for
the promise of salvation. Now by what right did he add that? Did he travel back in time
to ask Paul if he meant to put that in there? The only reasonable cause to add to this
text would be if there are manuscripts that show this is what Paul originally wrote.
Well, how many of all the 5000 manuscripts of the New Testament that we have,
renders this verse the way Smith did? None. Zero. So what that means, is that Smith
added it. It means he added it in the 1840’s. And let’s go back to our test. The
authority lies in that which is oldest. What’s older, what Paul wrote about salvation in
50. AD, or what Joseph Smith wrote in 1840?
Now, I’m not being nit picky here friends, because truthfully almost all Mormon theology
that conflicts with orthodox Christianity doesn’t come from the Bible at all. It comes from
Smith’s writings, additions to the Bible like this, or Doctrine and Covenants and Pearl of
Great Price. If the Mormons had decided that their version of Christianity would be
based totally on the Bible they might have a few differences here or there, but they
would have basically the same faith as I do.
But they added. And you can hopefully see that when you add to an authentic witness,
you really subtract.
CORRUPTION
The only way around this conclusion is to claim that Christianity tampered with it’s texts
and that Joseph Smith had divine insight into what REAL Christianity should have been.
It’s an interesting argument that both JW’s and Mormons and Muslims all advance. So
to make this argument stick, you have to do two things.
- First, discredit the existing authority.
- Second, create your own ancient authority
Let's say I was to start a Reformed United States of America with a stated goal of
reviving the TRUE nature and intent of the union begun in 1776. And let's say that the
REFORMED UNITED STATES of AMERICA would be a dictatorship with ME as the
dictator. Now, how will I sell this to the American people?
Because you and I know that DICTATORSHIP is far from the original intent of the
constitution, I would need something else to pull things in my direction. I would need to
find “lost” or long hidden letters written by Thomas Jefferson, or Ben Franklin, some
new information that could advance my new plan for America.
Then, I would claim that where the original constitution disagrees with my position, it
had been corrupted by later editors and so on. Then I’ve done two things. I’ve created
an authority that appears older, and two I’ve cast doubt on the established, old
authority. Then I, Rick Thiessen would reign on high as Sultan of the Reformed United
States of America!
So in this way you see both Mormons and JW’s both claim corruption and substitute
new sources. But then, it’s legitimate to ask,
A) On what basis do you claim that the Bible has been corrupted?
B) What is the reliability of your new sources?
When it comes to the first question, we look back into history at the manuscripts that
make up the Bible and it’s true, there have been corruptions. Not all manuscripts read
the same. But there’s so many manuscripts, over 5000 to compare, that the amount of
the NT that is any kind of doubt as to it’s veracity is ½ of 1%. There is no ancient
document like it, both in the amount of manuscripts and their age.
So if this was corrupted, we have to ask, when did this happen. We look to the 10th
century and all the manuscripts basically agree. We look to the 5th century, same. WE
look back to the 2nd century when the oldest ones are found, no corruption. So on what
basis? Friends you can have more confidence that your NT comes to you as it was
written, than you that your copy of Julius Caesar’s Gaulic Wars comes to you as written.
Then secondly we look at the reliability of the new sources. In the case of Joseph
Smith’s writings, there’s no archeological or anthropological evidence that Jews ever
lived on this continent in ancient times. And perhaps the most damning evidence
against the new sources of Christian theology is the Mormon “book of Abraham”.
These are drawings of a
copy of ancient Egyptian
hieroglyphics which Smith
claimed to translate by his
Seer Stones. At that time,
no one knew how to
understand hieroglyphs so
when Smith said they were
stories about Abraham,
Mormons believed this was
more evidence that
Christianity was corrupt and Smith had access to secret lost sources.
Then they uncovered the Rosetta Stone in the 1890’s which decoded Egyptian
hieroglyphics. Did Smith have special powers to translate ancient writings or not? If he
did, then Smith had more ancient testimony to God’s work than even the Bible! But
unfortunately, the very document which Smith translated was proved to actually be an
Egyptian funeral manual.
So we’re left with a testimony about Jesus that all the evidence says was NOT more
ancient, but instead came from the mind of a young New Yorker in the 1830’s, versus
the New Testament.
- It was written between 30 and 60 years of the life of Jesus by still living eye
witnesses to his life or close associates of eye witnesses.
- We have museums FULL of archeological evidence confirming names, dates,
places in the biblical record.
- We have over 5000 whole or partial manuscripts of these writings, the earliest
dating from within 30 years of the time of writing.
- It’s by far the best attested ancient manuscript in existence, such that only ½ of 1
percent of it’s words are in any kind of doubt as to what the original authors said
and none of those have any bearing on key areas of doctrine.
If it’s a race, it’s not even close.
DENOMINATIONS
So you ask, what are we supposed to do about the fact that Christians who accept the
Bible as their source don’t agree on so many things?
Well, friends,
- first, we put aside any idea of “rediscovering” the “secret” or “lost” teachings of
Jesus. That’s done. We have a faithful record of Jesus life and the teachings of
his apostles.
- Second, we agree that there is not perfect church, so every church is always in
need of reform back against its original template.
- Third, we focus on the main things of our Faith, using Scripture to define what
those main things are
- Fourth, we allow for disagreements among Christians on peripheral issues and
hold our own positions with love and a clear conscience (1 Tim 1:5).
o it was Augustine (circa 400) who first said: in the essentials, unity; in the
non-essentials, liberty; in all things, charity.
- Fifth, no one understands the Bible perfectly. So we may look to other Christians
in history and the creeds to clarify our understanding of the Apostles teachings in
the Bible...
o If one group of Christians believes something about Jesus that we think
we can defend from the Bible, but which the vast majority of Christians
from all times and all places have NEVER believed, then chances are
we've missed the Apostle’s meaning
GRACE OR WORKS
And when you apply these things, you realize an amazing bit of uniformity amongst all
the denomination confusion. Everyone who accepts the NT as the sole authority on
Jesus believes that salvation is by grace through faith in Jesus Christ. AND conversely:
everyone who adds to that Bible, or subtracts from it, or considers it
corrupted fundamentally, tends in EVERY case to add works to the
requirement for salvation.
They make salvation about
- their special knowledge (Gnostics) or
- their special translation (JW’s), or
- their special prophet (Muslims) or
- their secret rituals or their proofs or works. (LDS)
Only those who accept the gospel as delivered by the Apostles and recorded in the NT
consistently hold to the idea that salvation is by God’s GRACE alone through faith in
Jesus Christ.
This is why so much hangs in the balance about Jesus divinity which is another
consistent area of difference. The stakes for that doctrine are sky high, since if Jesus
wasn’t really uniquely, God, then what assurance could we have that he could carry all
our sin and declare us not-Guilty before the Father?
The answer is, without Jesus Being in very nature, God, we can have no assurance…
And that, by the way, is why JW’s and MORMON’S add works to Faith as the means to
be right with God. Jesus helped, but it was finite help. You do half the work. Jesus
opened a door, but you
- do the right Temple rituals,
- obey the right amount of commands,
- use the right word for God,
- be righteous enough, and
o THEN you can be saved.
But not historic and Biblical faith. The Apostle said it clearly:
Eph 2:8-10 For it is by grace you have been saved, through faith — and this not
from yourselves, it is the gift of God— 9 not by works, so that no one can boast.
And that’s the linchpin friends. If it’s not grace, then it’s just another religion and as
we’re learning in this series, all world religions have excellent ethical guidelines for us to
follow*. But we didn’t need a new pull-yourself-up-by-your-own-bootstraps philosophy.
We already had the 10 commandments of Judaism and the 5 Pillars of Islam and the 8
fold path of Buddhism.
Jesus did not lay down another self help program. He laid down his Life. Jesus came
and pictured us like the guy drowning and his right hand is up stretched, desperate for
aid but his left hand is grasping his right wrist and as he goes down he yells, “self help,
self help!” To that man he said,
“Come to me all labor and are heavy laden and I will give you rest. I came to
seek and to save lost …and to give my life as a ransom for many.”
