March 11, 2014
The Garden Path
In recently published articles the Mormon Church
wants to divert attention away from their idea that in the afterlife the
members get their own planet. Rather, they would prefer to focus on the belief
that in eternity their faithful will be like God and have creation abilities. Unfortunately
these folks are walking down the same garden path taken by Adam and Eve. The
serpent, craftier than any other wild animal, convinced Eve to eat the fruit by
saying, “For God knows that when you eat of it your eyes will be opened, and
you will be like God, knowing good and evil.” (Gen 3:5 NIV) It seems the
serpent and the church leadership speak the same language when they tell their
members they can become like God.
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1 comment:
Gail;
-----There are two possible, mutually exclusive reasons someone might want to be baptized three times face first, once each in the name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit. The first reason is that the person being baptized proposes some goal, or meaning for it to fulfill. The second reason is that the person being baptized is truly convinced in his own mind that God wants it that way. Regardless of the reason, the necessity of being baptized three times forward, etc. is not. But the person being baptized that way because he thinks God prescribes it pleases God because his attitude is towards doing what God wants him to do. The first person is in hot water. His frame of mind did not even consider what God wants, selecting the baptismal procedure for its benefit to himself.
-----It is certainly true that the second person is yet wrong about its necessity. God does not insist baptism to be done in any particular manner (though He more than clearly implies it to be immersion.) At what point does the lack of knowledge, or the presence of misperception, factual error, and distorted conclusions become problematic to one’s salvation? If the mere presence of such were that point, then we all perish. Nobody is without quite a significant degree of erroneous belief. Of course, none of us want to admit this. But we can hardly review our past without seeing many things we once believed later turning up false. Our apprehension to confess such is part of the reason our subconscious so stingily withholds memories from our consciousness.
-----But God sees it all. And though He desires that we be perfect, He knows we are not for now. He could have made salvation such that we were perfected at the instant of decision, never to so much as know an error again. Obviously, He didn’t. He accepts us as we are. But how much “as we are” is He really willing to accept? Look at how many different ways there are to think about numerous matters of faith and life, and notice that for every way there are many thinkers of it, and probably a couple more ways like it we haven’t even imagined. Let God be true, though every man be false. Then let us all enter His kingdom by grace, even that one whose entire building upon the foundation of Christ was wood, hay, straw, and stubble, burned up completely by the fire through which he himself only survived (I Cor 3:15).
-----I can’t help but think that the issue is not how much misperception, or how far off the truth it is that erroneous belief necessarily precludes salvation. I am concluded for now that it is the reason for misbelieving which will land one in hot coals. If I believe what I believe because that is what I want to believe, then I am my god not desiring the truth about God. If I believe because I am convinced I have found God’s truth for me to know, and that it is how He wants me to be and what He wants me to have as I continue to work out my own salvation with fear and trembling (Phil 2:12), becoming fully convinced in my own mind (Rom 14:5), then my error burns up in the fire and I survive.
-----I do not automatically see lost people when I see Mormons. I see the doctrine of demons and a need to deal truthfully with those caught in its net. I believe some are caught to their temporal detriment, though they truly love God, and so, will survive the fire. I believe I see many more who are in for a long, hot, eternal haul, because they want to be god unto themselves like the guy being baptized three times forward to suit his own ambition. I believe the call for Christ begins when the desire to be right collides with the realization of being false. I would wonder when such a collision might happen to the God seeking Mormon no more than I wonder why it is not happening more for me, who being a man am yet false.
Love you all,
Steve Corey
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