May 6, 2008

Dear Family and Friends,

Maddy, Tara, and Rob (4-19-8)
Last month, in addition to all the Mormons I deal with, I was able to share Christ with a New Ager and a bisexual. Praise God for the internet! The former was quite a lengthy dialogue. This individual was advocating the Foundation Church of the New Birth. This is a spiritualist cult of James Padgett, who claimed to have received revelations from Jesus and dead people. One of those dead people was the prophet Samuel, who supposedly said that the witch of Endor wasn’t really a witch as the Bible has always said. Saul was put to death for consulting her and going against Deuteronomy 18:9-12. I urged this New Ager, “[L]eave this New Age philosophy in the trash can, and commit yourself simply to Jesus and His word the Bible. Let Him be your everything. He will make you into the kind of person He's always intended. Trust Him alone, and stop following after false prophets.” This New Ager was also reading through the Book of Mormon, and was very complimentary of it.

The bisexual who wrote me asked why I criticize Mormons when they are amazing people, and this individual also wanted to know what I thought about being gay. I told this individual that it’s important to get both sides of the story before buying a religion. One wouldn’t simply listen to the used car salesman when determining whether a car is any good or not, so why should one simply listen to Mormons give us their take? I also referred this person to Matthew 23 to see how Jesus dealt with false religions. Then I encouraged this individual to feed off the Bible and to “trust God with your whole life to do with it as He sees best. His word clearly says homosexuality is a sin. You may not like that, but can you trust God to make you the person He's always wanted you to be? I worry. That's who I am. God loves me, and doesn't want me to be a worry-wart. So I submit to Him and trust Him even though I struggle with it. Worry isn't my God. God is. So I must take up my cross and follow Him daily.

We have a friend at church who has given His life to Jesus and struggles with homosexuality. He got into a Christian Recovery program called Celebrate Recovery. Now he's married, and has a baby. He's not perfect, but he's trusting God to change his life.” I gave this bisexual our friend’s short video testimony--it’s imbedded in an Easter sermon our pastor did. Click HERE to view it. It’s about 12 minutes into the sermon (about 1/4 of the way through the sermon). My new bisexual friend thanked me, but is more in love now with what makes her happy.

Frank Sherwin, Stephen Levene, and Rick Worland on the "Expelled" panel discussion (4-29-8)
In addition to sharing Christ, I was able to challenge Dr. Stephen Levene--a University of Texas at Dallas biologist--on his myopic definition of science. We went to a Dallas philosopher’s meeting panel discussion on Ben Stein’s “Expelled: No Intelligence Allowed.” It was during the question/answer time that I got up to ask if “science” simply seeks natural explanations for phenomena, then how was science done prior to Darwin when practically all scientists assumed that the world was intelligently designed (ID). Levene totally dismissed the question by using a smoke screen that talked about how other disciplines outside of biology may have assumed a Creator, but biology need not utilize supernatural explanations. Besides the fact that there’s more to science than just biology, Levene was simply question-begging (assuming what he needed to prove--and pointing to the majority of scientists today doesn't remove the problem). Many scientists today aren’t trained to think with basic logic and critical thinking skills. They are taught to parrot back the indoctrination of the establishment.

The audience at the panel discussion in the Angelika theater
It is important to see that some acts of trust are in fact better than others. The evidence for ID is overwhelming, and leads us to take a natural act of faith in God's work in creation. What the evolutionists hold to requires an unnatural act of faith and requires more faith than the faith we exercise (unless they want to hold that God's involved in the evolution process--which is certainly not the majority view among scientists). They want to take any scientific evidence away from God's creating role. This is the age we live in post-Enlightenment. The Enlightenment got society to think that there is no reason for God, but it is still perfectly acceptable if you want to believe. What this does is marginalize the Christian Faith, and keeps people from accepting it as really true.

As for updates to MormonInfo.org, I’ve added a couple FAQ’s: one on John 20:17 and the other on whether there were in fact “plain and precious things taken away from the Bible.” I also added a couple discussion topics: one on Examples of Extreme Pressure to Conform in Mormonism, and the other on C. S. Lewis and Mormonism. Finally, I added a new testimony I edited of Ron Harris.

Tara had a meeting last month with a gal whose husband is divorcing her. She never really converted to Mormonism, but remained married for about a dozen years. She has two kids. She’s going through Divorce Care at our church. Another one of our supporters is getting divorced from her LDS husband. She used to be LDS and has four kids. Please pray for these and other Christians who are getting divorced from LDS spouses. The Manti, UT Mormon Miracle Pageant (which I’m planning on going to in June again) clearly says that the most important thing for us is the exaltation of men into gods. With this mindset, it’s not hard to see why LDS are so willing to let go of their “Gentile” spouses.

Tara, Maddy, and I will be driving to Utah this Saturday for a week. We’ll be going for Tara’s sister’s wedding. The sister who is getting married is the only one in the family who is open to talking to Tara about Christ. Please pray for us and Tara’s family as tensions are already high. I’m also looking forward to doing ministry in downtown Salt Lake City again!

Currently, we are averaging about 28% of the monthly funding needed to get us back to Utah. We have a long way to go. If you believe in this mission, then we need your help! Please see our “Invest” page on how you may partner with us.

Thank you so much for your concern, financial investments, and prayers for this ministry, and for those trapped by false religions and philosophies.

Rob Sivulka
President, Courageous Christians United
MormonInfo.org
JWInfo.org
[email protected]

****PRAYER REQUESTS****

1. For more speaking venues
2. For guidance in fundraising
3. For more members to join our Ex-Mormon Meetup recovery group

****MAILBAG****

Hi Rob! All the way from Ireland!! Great site. The music sounds very Irish. …It was great to come across your website. Is it possible to be added to your e-mail list. God bless you and the work that you and your family are doing. And as we say here 'as gailge' (in Irish), Go n-éirí an bóthar leat - literally, 'may the road rise with you' (have a good journey) Rath Dé ort agus beannacht leat (The grace of God and His blessings be with you)
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Your website is wonderful. Thank you so much for the work you are doing. I began my research, after a falling out with my middle step daughter, and found your site. I wouldn't agree with her that Mormons are Christians and she, and her care giver, cut me off. So thank you for what you are doing.
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Do you really believe that Jesus is a LOSER? Anyone that ends up in hell for all eternity, as you have said, including faithful Latter-day Saints, literally means that you think Jesus is a LOSER. I think it's an absolute shame for you to reduce the Lord's "free gift" of Atonement into a filthy LIE -- Shame on you, You Bad-Boy!
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YOUR WEBSITE ROCKS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!SO MUCH GOOD STUFF ON THERE! WOW!
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I just read your newsletter....keep up the good work...I'm praying for you both...I have seen evidence of former Baptists turning Mormon as well, the Mormon missionaries here informed me their Mission President is a former Baptist. Sad and scary. Also the prices of gas and food rising so high bring to mind the end times prophecies in the Bible...hold fast to truth and love.
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YEA! I have recently gotten into some online forums, and one of them is a religious debate group. A woman is dating a JW (It looks like she attends a Calvary Chapel, but also voting for Obama... so maybe a more liberal Christian?) anyhow, I private messaged her with the JWInfo.org sight and she emailed me back saying thanks for the site and she'll definitely look into, that she is a strong believer in getting both sides of the "story". I then encouraged her to shoot you an email if the sight didn't answer all the questions that she had. I'm just so happy that she was nice about and wasn't like... "Don't give me anti crap." :) Hopefully the sight will help her.

PS The woman I gave the website to said someone else on the board recommended it as well!

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