LDS Missionaries
At the beginning of last month, I was walking into our local Calvary Thrift store and a couple LDS missionaries were coming out of the game store which was next door to Calvary Thrift. (It was a P-Day–Preparation Day [Monday]–so they had free time to kill.) Of course I went right after them. After exchanging some pleasantries, I found out that one of them had grown up atheist and converted to the LDS faith not that long ago. I asked how he came to know atheism was no longer true. He said that he was in a rough spot in his life having lost his father, and he prayed to God to find out if He existed. The missionary said that he felt peace and God speaking to his heart, and thus concluded that God must exist. So I asked this missionary how he determined that the LDS Church was true. It came as no surprise that the same means was employed. He merely felt that these things were true.
Now of course I pointed out the dangers with all this, and he asked how I know that what I hold is true. So I told him that feelings are good as far as they go, but they are not a very reliable means of establishing truth. Sometimes we get lucky, but many times we get in a lot of trouble by putting all our eggs in this basket. So I started to explain the reasons I have for God’s existence and how He showed up in the person of Jesus. I gave this missionary the argument for God from the best explanation of the universe coming into being as well as the fine tuning of the universe requires an amazingly powerful Mind to put everything together in such a way to sustain life. Random natural processes obviously fail at this. The example I gave was Hoyle saying it would be like a tornado going over a junkyard and magically producing a 747. Yeah, right! Then I gave some arguments for the prophecies concerning Jesus in the Old Testament as well as some arguments for the resurrection of Christ.
So with that I then proceeded to talk about how different that God is from the LDS God. The latter doesn’t fit what we know about the Beginner of the universe, since His deity is a product of an eternal universe. That is, Joseph Smith’s God had to become a God by following a God before Him. In fact, Smith taught that we have to become a God the same as all other Gods have done. Then I demonstrated from the Bible that this cannot be the true God (Isa. 43:10, 44:6, 8, and 24).
I invited them over to my home to talk more about the Bible. I said that I’d love to feed them and see if they could demonstrate Mormonism from the Bible. They took my number, but I’m still waiting! I asked if I could pray for them, and they looked at each other, and then allowed me. So I prayed that God would have mercy on them and open their eyes to the truth of His word.
New Intro Video
I put a new short intro video up for our YouTube channel, MormonInfoDotOrg, welcoming viewers.
Pastor Dave Ruscetta of LogosSpeaking at Logos
I spoke at Logos Christian Church last month. Logos is a small home fellowship in Escondido, CA. I was able to share about my doctoral research on “Mormonism’s Perennial Racism Problem.”
More LDS Missionaries
I had just picked my folks up from the airport and dropped them off at their home. After taking their luggage in, I went to get back in my car and the LDS missionaries were walking by! I said, “Hey, you’re the missionaries!” I talked to them for a little, then my dad came out and met them. He found out that they never received the book and goodies he left at their door as a Christmas gift. So he went back in to give each of them Micah Wilder's book "Passport to Heaven" and a KJV New Testament! I was able to share with them a little of Micah’s testimony, particularly how the Baptist minister he ran into encouraged him to read through the New Testament with the eyes of a child. It was cold, so the missionaries had to go, but they took my dad's number down. He invited them over for games, and they said they like doing service projects.
Update on Doctoral Program
Good news! I received word last month that I will be able to receive the bursary again for this year. This allows me to save around 60% of my total costs.
I also sent the video of my presentation to my doctoral supervisor and he thought it was “wonderful” and said that I am becoming an expert on Mormon racism.
We Need Your Partnership
We not only need your prayers, but we need your financial partnership as well. Keep in mind that your investment is not simply for us, but for the lives of others we reach with the gospel. The standard way to financially invest is by writing a tax-deductible check to Courageous Christians United (CCU). For more information on various ways to invest in this ministry, including online giving, please see our “Invest” page on our sites. Please keep in mind we have no financial guarantees each month. Ministry partners come and go. If you’re not a partner and are blessed by these monthly updates, please consider joining our team and let us know soon. We’d love to be your missionaries here in Utah. Many thanks to those of you who hold us up in prayer and/or in your financial giving!
We expect God to provide for our needs through you. Why? Because the Bible is clear: “the Lord has commanded that those who preach the gospel should receive their living from the gospel” (1 Cor. 9:14).
Be strong and courageous (Joshua 1:6)!
Rob Sivulka
President, Courageous Christians United
P.O. Box 1374
West Jordan, UT 84088
(801) 792-6373 (leave voice message or text)
MormonInfo.org
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Mailbag
[The following dialogue is in the comments from that Welcome video mentioned above. against anti-Mormons wrote:] screw you Rob Sevulka, leading people out of the Mormon church
[MormonInfoDotOrg:] Love you! I pray God will be merciful to you and give you eyes to see the cult you're in before it's too late.
[against anti-Mormons:] lol! Not a cult from where I am standing.
[MormonInfoDotOrg:] When you get an actual argument, let me know. Otherwise you're just wasting everyone's time.
[against anti-Mormons:] You're wasting everyone's time. All these years of anti-Mormons attacking The LDS Church and you're still nowhere near the bottom or end of it.
[MormonInfoDotOrg:] the people who convert out of Mormonism, and there are many, don't think I've wasted my time. Again, instead of your personal views, give me an argument why my beliefs are wrong. Until then, nothing is going to change.
[against anti-Mormons:] OK, 1) just because you had a bad experience with the church it doesn't mean to say that everybody has. I haven't had a bad experience; Gordon B. Hinckley, for example, didn't have a bad experience. You're trying to assume everybody has a bad experience just because you did. 2) You and other anti-Mormons, you're tactics is that of a bully and a coward. You wouldn't go to a Mosque and have a plackard that said "Islam is false" because you know the Muslims pysically attack you but you and your anti-Mormon friends attack LDS people because you know their is no comeback, that LDS people are soft and avoid confrontation and you anti-Mormons prey and play on that, you know that and that's why you do it. 3) Mormon doctrine is not boring. Traditional Christianity teaches people are sinners for eating the apple, LDS Christianity says we eat the apple to grow up and experience all human emtions and experiences.
[MormonInfoDotOrg:] You obviously have no idea what you are talking about. I never was LDS, so experience doesn't matter to me. What matters is what God has revealed and how others need to be warned of false prophets just as Christ and His apostles did. If you go to the Pictures page on CourageousChristiansUnited.org, you'll see outreach pictures to LDS, JWs, Muslims, and Abortonists. Further, LDS have assaulted me physically. You assume they are all peaceful. Finally, there should be no criticism of a doctor who likes to specialize in a particular field. Regardless, Smith failed every biblical test for being a prophet of God and you can be happy and headed to hell as Proverbs 14:12 implies.
[against anti-Mormons:] If you never was LDS then why on Earth are you trolling Mormons? I needn't say more...
[MormonInfoDotOrg:] Paul wasn't a Gentile, but because of his calling, he was known as an "apostle to the Gentiles" (Rom. 11:13).
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I can't wait for each episode to come out. You do such an amazing job. Praise God! I was never mormon my dad forbid it but wanted to! Then I learned about Mormonism beyond the lessons! So glad I was spared all that! Thank you so much!
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Thank you for providing much needed content for our mormon friends.
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God bless your work
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Great job
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