Mormon Direction

IN the scriptures, it is said that if we deny Christ, he would deny us (Matthew 10:33,Luke 12:9,2 Timothy 2:12) and those who deny Jesus Christ are also denying his power thereof (2 Timothy 3:5). It was warned for these latter-days that many will deny him even though they profess to be with him. When hearing all the claims by Christians, one may wonder how this can happen, well it already has.

I was reading a magazine published by the Seventh Day Adventists named “Adventist World”. In it was an article titled, “Adventists and Muslims: Five Convictions – How to build on what we have in common”, written by William G. Johnsson. This article appeared OK until I came to a paragraph at the bottom of page 26. What William G. Johnsson said surprised me. In light of the intensity that most Bible only believers call themselves Christian, his paragraph on page 26 addressed the usage of the name “Christian” when interacting with Muslims. In the context of that article, William G. Johnsson wrote about how he chose to interact with those of the Muslim faith. Mr. Johnsson said,

“In meeting Muslim leaders, I emphasize from the outset that I prefer to be known as an Adventist rather than as a Christian. For Muslims the name “Christian” carries such negative associations—associations that do not belong with Seventh-day Adventists—that I would rather avoid the term. And “Adventist” captures well the driving pulse of who we are—our hope in Jesus’ return and sense of divine calling to tell it to the world.”

On-line URL: http://adventistworld.org/article.php?id=708

As I re-read that paragraph and then again the remainder of the article, I understood Mr. Johnsson to say that he does not want to be identified as a Christian because of the negative reputation it has and the negative reaction by the Muslims. Was I incorrect in reading this? To get some clarification, I emailed the magazine asking for clarification and I received an answer from William Johnsson himself and is as follows.
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This easily happens in the world, where sinful behaviour and acts are justified. Acts as lying, sometimes called “white lies”, deceitfulness justified by the word “crafty”, manipulation justified in the idea of “it was just business, not personal”, or any other sin that man in the world commits and the millions of rationalizations the world attaches to it. These are the obvious justifications of sin, the evil of the world and of the flesh. Why then am I speaking about something that appears to be obvious to even the world? It is because I am using their bad example to show the practice of justifying sin in the name of Christian-hood.

Have I caught your interest?

I have seen this all too often, where justification of wickedness, sin or wrong is done in the name of “good will” toward others. Even using the examples of Jesus Christ to justify this idle philosophy. I use the word “idle” because it is a choice and act that forsakes righteousness and in the absence of righteousness, there is no Christianity as Jesus taught it and showed example by it.

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Outside of this Church, how many Christians believe that the Holy Ghost continues to give revelation, which is direct communication? That has become a crucial question in light of worldly events that are happening and due to happen in these last days on the earth. Biblical prophecy dictates that a storm of evil is forthcoming. War skirmishes, unknown diseases and encomomic collaspe are but a small example of what this world is to suffer, which Christians agree.

Christendom has repeatedly claimed that all we need is the Bible and nothing else. They claim that the Holy Ghost is in them and all revelation they need is in the words read in the Bible. Many other Christians believe that they get all the guidance they need for their life from the Bible, but is this true in all respects? It is true the Bible holds God’s wisdom for the common aliments of life and gives counsel of what we are to do and believe, in general, but a serious problem arises in light of the ongoing fulfillment of prophecies for these last days. Will the Bible be able to provide the right counsel for these times, at the right moment, to tell or warn you of things not yet seen and give the right counsel and direction? In fact, the Book of Mormon, Doctrine of Covenants and Pearl of Great Price face the same problem. What then is the answer to this concern?

In Christendom, there are more than 34,000 different Christian denominations across the world. All are different and they do not all have the same beliefs in Christ and salvation. In other words many have differing doctrines about the same thing. Some believe in baptism by water, others believe baptism by sprinkling, others baptism by desire and others, no baptism at all. Some believe Jesus Christ is a real person and others merely an expression from a greater single being. Some believe the Holy Ghost still communicates, others claim such communication has ended with the end of the early Christian Church and believe that the Holy Ghost is no longer needed since we have all we need in the Bible. Yet there are many different Bible versions which exclude scripture, added scripture, mistranslated the original Hebrew and Greek texts or purposely left out some things for some unknown reason. It is these Bibles that other Christians claim are sufficient.

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The author, Mike Thomas of “Mormonism, A Gold Plated Religion”, posted on his blog site his article of why he believes Mormons are misunderstood. After reading it, I was disappointed, expecting more, but I was not surprised. He gave only one reason as to why Mormons are misunderstood. That reason proved to be a personal and biased one and it failed to address the real cause as to why Mormons are misunderstood.  His rationale to his personal reason came out halfway down his article, where it began with a question, “So why are Mormons so misunderstood?”. Mr. Thomas first referred to an official Mormon News Service of June 5, 2007 ( http://newsroom.lds.org/ldsnewsroom/eng/commentary/the-centrality-of-christ ), where he quoted from the article,

“What is it that people find so difficult in accepting Mormons as Christians? – While others have their opinions, ‘in our terms,’ President Hinckley said, ‘we worship Christ.’”

I attended and read the LDS news article. I found that Mr. Thomas focused on one small part of the LDS news article, selecting only one quote, in an attempt to discount what he calls “The Mormon View” of why other Christians have difficulty in accepting Mormons. Before I comment on Thomas’s claims, allow me to provide more from the same LDS news article.

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