Rob lecturing to Impact 360 missionaries
Speaking to Impact 360 Mission Team
Maven's Brett Kunkle and his family led another mission trip to Utah the beginning of last month. With other leaders, they had about 100! The team was here for just 5 days. They were primarily a bunch of students from Impact 360 Institute in Georgia. We got to have dinner with them and talk Mormonism vs. Christianity at Southeast Christian Church in Murray.
LDS Missionaries
It is really amazing how when we trust God to use us, He does! Last month, it was the first time to have LDS missionaries come to our door in the 12 years we've lived here. They were English speaking, but looking for Spanish speakers. We had about 1/2 hour with them. We fed them our fruit and were super nice and hospitable to them. Sister Saunders (pictured below next to Tara) is done with her mission next month. Sister Pack is on her very first day!!!
We talked about there being different Christs but that doesn't entail they are all true (e.g., Jehovah's Witnesses and Islam), the Great Apostasy, the deleted plain and precious truths from the Bible, the First Vision, them being the only true Church, and prophets. I asked them if they would like to know what we thought about the Dark Ages, and I was able to share how there was no universal apostasy according to Jesus. I also mentioned how the claim of universal apostasy is hard to square with the Book of Mormon story of the 3 Nephites who are still alive today roaming the earth preaching and the D&C teaching that John the Apostle is still alive preaching today. I also shared with them about the prophecy and healing that my mom received 4 years ago. I was looking forward to spending more time talking with them, but of course they had to go.
 I encouraged them to read through the New Testament with the eyes of a child and told them how LDS missionary Micah Wilder was on his mission and was encouraged by a Baptist pastor to do the same thing. I asked if they would read Micah's testimony book sometime and they happily said they would, so I gave them each one. (That's not a Book of Mormon that Sister Pack is holding!) Then they let Tara and me both pray for them. What a divine appointment!
We asked if they could come back, but they said they wouldn't. Then a week or so later, they called us back, since one of them left a pair of gloves here. So when they came back, we gave them a plate of cookies and each also got my card with all my websites on it.
MeetTheExMormons.org
Our friend Jon Kim shared his testimony last month at our monthly fellowship. Jon used to be LDS, became atheist, and then became a believer. Click the link above to watch his testimony and see the pictures.
Dialogue with an LDS Missionary
Here is a dialogue I had with an LDS missionary that lasted a week.
Dialogue with an RM
Here is a quick dialogue I had with a Returned LDS missionary.
Street Preachers Deserve More Respect
Here's a blog I wrote on giving street preachers more respect.
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
MeetTheExMormons.org
JWinfo.org
MuhammadLied.Info
AbortionIsMurder.Info
Mailbag
Hi Rob Sivulka,
I just watched this video and I’m wondering if you could watch it and comment.
[I replied:] I don't have time to watch all this, but I think it's silly. The D&C and other LDS scriptures, including the Joseph Smith Translation (JST), as well as the Jehovah's Witnesses NWT have absolutely no evidentiary basis. The ESV, NIV, and other well-accepted versions do have such a basis, namely, the Hebrew and Greek manuscripts as well as Church fathers' citings and the early Church lectionaries that also quote the Bible. We take all that and put it into a modern language that modern people can understand.
The KJV is essentially the same in terms of semantics with the respectable modern translations. There's simply a different syntax that is used, since there are a billion ways to say the same thing. The JST, for example, actually clearly contradicts what every other translation says in certain places and again has no evidentiary basis for its translation. The KJV and other modern respectable translations uphold the same faith once for all delivered to the saints. Semantical differences are inconsequential to that. There are around 3 major examples where modern versions do not contain certain passages. Scholars have their reasons for that which may or may not be good, but at least they still form their reasons on objective evidence which may be debated. And again, what is taken out in no way diminishes the truths that are already found in all the evidentiary-based versions.
______________
Thank God for your concern & witness
______________
Wow, praise God for what He's doing through you, brother!!
______________
“There is no general apostasy”
“Is protestant”
Pick one
[I replied:] Reformation, not Restoration. Simple.
That Reformation also occurred to a certain extent within the Roman Catholic Church. Then there's always been the Eastern Orthodox as well. The claim though is that of course apostasy for the Church is always a relative term and never absolute to where a Restoration is required.
[He said:] If your arguments are as good as “the three Nephites contradict the apostasy “ I wouldn’t hold my breath
[Another LDS said:] seriously tho… Mormon 1:13-14 literally says there was an apostasy
“But wickedness did prevail upon the face of the whole land, insomuch that the Lord did take away his beloved disciples, and the work of miracles and of healing did cease because of the iniquity of the people.
And there were no gifts from the Lord, and the Holy Ghost did not come upon any, because of their wickedness and unbelief.”
Rob Sivulka what do you make of this scripture?
[I replied:] Again, no Christian church denies periods of apostasy. That's not the issue. That's known as a strawman fallacy. The issue is was there a universal apostasy. For LDS, there must have been a complete and universal apostasy where the gospel and authority of God was lost from the earth in order to justify the claim that the LDS Church is the only true Church "restored" on the earth for these latter days (Bruce R. McConkie, Mormon Doctrine, 42-46; Doctrines of Salvation 3:265-326; and History of the Church 1:XLII-XLIII).
For Christians, though, the Church, the gospel, and the authority of God continue throughout all generations. Thus, though there may be times of reformation, there will never be a time of restoration for the Church (Psalm 12:6-7; Isaiah 9:6-7; 40:8; Mat. 16:18; 24:35; John 10:35; Eph. 3:20-1; and 1 Peter 1:25).
In addition, the 3 Nephites in the BM are still living and preaching (3 Ne. 28:18, 29), the Apostle John is still living and preaching according to D&C 7:2-3, 6, and the Moses 5:58-59 says that the gospel was preached in the beginning and shall be preached until the end. So there's not even a good reason to hold to a "universal" or "complete" apostasy from LDS scripture.
|
