Don't Retreat!

7/24/13                Miguel                 about 35

I was invited to lead a men’s bible study this morning, so I talked about what I believe to be the area of greatest weakness in our churches today – reaching out to the lost with the gospel.  “We’ve become very good at inviting people to come to our meetings” I explained, “but do we actually go out and bring the Gospel to them, sharing the good news right where they are at, in their world, like Jesus and the early Christians did?”   They agreed that our task of boldly bringing the gospel to the world has largely been hijacked by false teachers such as the Mormons and Jehovah’s Witnesses, and one reason we often don’t want to share the gospel is because we don’t want to be associated with groups like these.  “And they are definitely out there” one brother said.  He was so right; just before the meeting I had arrived early and reached out to a few people passing by while I waited.  One man I talked to was Miguel, a Mormon from Mexico.  He was very active in door to door evangelism in Mexico but not yet here in Chicago.  “Are you aware of the differences between Mormons and Christians?” I asked.  He claimed he was not.  In fact, Mormons are trained to portray their beliefs as Christian, and they make heavy use of Christian terminology, although closer examination of these terms shows that they have entirely twisted meanings.  It can be easy to get caught up in trivial rabbit trails, so I went right to the heart of the issues with Miguel.  “For example, you are aware of course that Mormons believe Jesus was not the Son of God but rather only an angel created by God, and is in fact thought by Mormons to be the brother of Satan"  Miguel didn’t hesitate to agree.  I went on to explain the requirement of God’s justice of an infinitely worthy sacrifice for our sinful rebellion against His infinite holiness, and how even the highest angel as a created being couldn’t meet that requirement.  Mormons have many different and unbiblical beliefs, but it is this blasphemy against the deity of Christ that I think is the most blatant.  They are definitely not Christian and Christians are understandably reluctant to be associated with them in their evangelistic efforts.  But this shouldn’t make us retreat from the mission fields all around us; we should be even more diligent in our efforts to make sure Christ is properly represented to a world that so desperately needs to hear about Him.