Mormon missionaries
Hello S_____,
Thanks for the quote. The former president (of the Latter Day Saints) couldn’t be more correct.
I met with some Mormon missionaries last week in my Adventist church. Interesting and informative. I have talked one-on-one before, and also with three while just walking down the street. The first visit by one missionary abruptly ended when he left the house after I told him I was an SDA and had a few questions. The three parted company very nicely, since I was walking my dog and they were going somewhere else. (I have always introduced myself as a kind of half-brother to Mormons.)
But I had never really had a chance to question them and give an answer for what I believed the Bible says. This time I would have the chance. They had given me some texts to read before their visit, which I did read, plus some more. I wrote down a page full of notes.
Of course, some of my disagreements were not new to them, so they had ready answers for those. Others I think they hadn’t heard before, i.e. America in prophecy and the current effort to unite church and state. One issue, they actually brought up. I guess they thought I would present it, so they would pre-empt me. I wasn’t going to bring it up, although I had read it in the Book of Mormon before they came.
It said to the effect that sin was meant to be; that God foresaw it and even expected it; and that we wouldn’t be happy if our first parents hadn’t disobeyed God. The missionaries said Adam and Eve were innocent but not happy. To be truly fulfilled, sin and rebellion had to happen. They compared it to being in prison and appreciating freedom more in prison than before the incarceration.
I wonder what Satan thinks about that idea. It seems it could give him hope. Nobody has rebelled and spit in God’s face quite like he has. No one has raked the great King across the coals and nailed Him to a cross like the arch-deceiver. I guess the devil can be happy.
I couldn’t think of a good answer during the visit. But that night, I understood what it was all about. I was reminded of not the way we view experiences of life, but of the Bible and the way it describes what befell people who had fallen under temptation. Obviously a prisoner wants freedom more than the free person does, but that’s because our fallen nature takes every good thing for granted so quickly. The Bible gives the true picture of rebellion against God and the subsequent service to Satan.
King Solomon and his son Rehoboam not only lost their relationship with God, but led untold multitudes down a terrible road that ended in the destruction of their nation. Jeroboam fared no better. He died a lost man, and the 10 northern tribes, which followed him, were scattered to the four winds because of his and their apostasy.
Its true, Solomon eventually repented and was reconciled with the Lord, but he was a ruined man and the glory that made his kingdom such a wonder to the world was in irreparable spiritual shambles. Nobody loved him anymore; the spirituality his father David had bequeathed to him and to the nation never returned. They fell further and further away, one generation after another. Does that sound familiar to the history of Protestantism and Protestant America?
Many other Bible characters who fell away from Yahweh suffered the same fate. In the Bible, no one who ever departed from the Lord ever benefited from it, beginning with Cain all the way down to the Christian church which became the great whore of Revelation. “Babylon the great is fallen, is fallen, and is become the habitation of devils, and the hold of every foul spirit, and a cage of every unclean and hateful bird.” (Rev. 18:2).
A cursed life is promised for anyone who departs from the Lord. “Thus saith the Lord; Cursed be the man that trusteth in man, and maketh flesh his arm, and whose heart departeth from the Lord.” (Jer. 17:5). This even went for David, Moses, Samson, Balaam, etc., etc. Not even the Bible heroes escaped the punishment from the Lord for disobedience, because God is no respecter of persons.
After 1,000 years and suffering double for all their disobedience, Israel heard God’s word through John the Baptist that their punishment was finally over. “Comfort ye, comfort ye My people, saith your God. Speak ye comfortably to Jerusalem, and cry unto her, that her warfare is accomplished, that her iniquity is pardoned: for she hath received of the Lord’s hand double for all her sins. The voice of him that crieth in the wilderness, Prepare ye the way of the Lord, make straight in the desert a highway for our God.” (Is. 40:1-3).
S_____, sorry for the sermon! I hope you enjoyed it! :)
Happy Sabbath.
David
Thanks for the quote. The former president (of the Latter Day Saints) couldn’t be more correct.
I met with some Mormon missionaries last week in my Adventist church. Interesting and informative. I have talked one-on-one before, and also with three while just walking down the street. The first visit by one missionary abruptly ended when he left the house after I told him I was an SDA and had a few questions. The three parted company very nicely, since I was walking my dog and they were going somewhere else. (I have always introduced myself as a kind of half-brother to Mormons.)
But I had never really had a chance to question them and give an answer for what I believed the Bible says. This time I would have the chance. They had given me some texts to read before their visit, which I did read, plus some more. I wrote down a page full of notes.
Of course, some of my disagreements were not new to them, so they had ready answers for those. Others I think they hadn’t heard before, i.e. America in prophecy and the current effort to unite church and state. One issue, they actually brought up. I guess they thought I would present it, so they would pre-empt me. I wasn’t going to bring it up, although I had read it in the Book of Mormon before they came.
It said to the effect that sin was meant to be; that God foresaw it and even expected it; and that we wouldn’t be happy if our first parents hadn’t disobeyed God. The missionaries said Adam and Eve were innocent but not happy. To be truly fulfilled, sin and rebellion had to happen. They compared it to being in prison and appreciating freedom more in prison than before the incarceration.
I wonder what Satan thinks about that idea. It seems it could give him hope. Nobody has rebelled and spit in God’s face quite like he has. No one has raked the great King across the coals and nailed Him to a cross like the arch-deceiver. I guess the devil can be happy.
I couldn’t think of a good answer during the visit. But that night, I understood what it was all about. I was reminded of not the way we view experiences of life, but of the Bible and the way it describes what befell people who had fallen under temptation. Obviously a prisoner wants freedom more than the free person does, but that’s because our fallen nature takes every good thing for granted so quickly. The Bible gives the true picture of rebellion against God and the subsequent service to Satan.
King Solomon and his son Rehoboam not only lost their relationship with God, but led untold multitudes down a terrible road that ended in the destruction of their nation. Jeroboam fared no better. He died a lost man, and the 10 northern tribes, which followed him, were scattered to the four winds because of his and their apostasy.
Its true, Solomon eventually repented and was reconciled with the Lord, but he was a ruined man and the glory that made his kingdom such a wonder to the world was in irreparable spiritual shambles. Nobody loved him anymore; the spirituality his father David had bequeathed to him and to the nation never returned. They fell further and further away, one generation after another. Does that sound familiar to the history of Protestantism and Protestant America?
Many other Bible characters who fell away from Yahweh suffered the same fate. In the Bible, no one who ever departed from the Lord ever benefited from it, beginning with Cain all the way down to the Christian church which became the great whore of Revelation. “Babylon the great is fallen, is fallen, and is become the habitation of devils, and the hold of every foul spirit, and a cage of every unclean and hateful bird.” (Rev. 18:2).
A cursed life is promised for anyone who departs from the Lord. “Thus saith the Lord; Cursed be the man that trusteth in man, and maketh flesh his arm, and whose heart departeth from the Lord.” (Jer. 17:5). This even went for David, Moses, Samson, Balaam, etc., etc. Not even the Bible heroes escaped the punishment from the Lord for disobedience, because God is no respecter of persons.
After 1,000 years and suffering double for all their disobedience, Israel heard God’s word through John the Baptist that their punishment was finally over. “Comfort ye, comfort ye My people, saith your God. Speak ye comfortably to Jerusalem, and cry unto her, that her warfare is accomplished, that her iniquity is pardoned: for she hath received of the Lord’s hand double for all her sins. The voice of him that crieth in the wilderness, Prepare ye the way of the Lord, make straight in the desert a highway for our God.” (Is. 40:1-3).
S_____, sorry for the sermon! I hope you enjoyed it! :)
Happy Sabbath.
David
posted by David | 12:37 PM
1 Comments:
Let's bring it down to practical life with small children. We could say that our child wouldn't be happy until he got run over for running out in the street after a toy, even though he's been told not to. Sounds pretty silly to me.
Yes, those who have been forgiven much, love much. However, one must remember that it was sin that severed the love in the first place.
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