Dear Friends,
Very often in the Scriptures we find those who are believers in our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ being contrasted or compared with those who are not believers; and being contrasted or compared in such a way as to "provoke" the believers to "jealousy".
For example, in the first epistle to the Corinthians we find the great Apostle Paul contrasting the behaviour of the believers in that place with the heathen, and assuring the believers that the sin that they are committing is a sin that is "not so much as named among the Gentiles". Here he is not so much praising the Gentiles as provoking the professors of Christ's name by way of comparison.
In this letter, I would like to endeavour to use that same scriptural line of approach and see if the facts that are going to be laid before us now should not provoke us to jealousy and to greater endeavour in the things of our God. The "Gentiles" – the "heathen" that I have chosen for this contrast and comparison are those people who call themselves by the high-sounding name of "The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints". Perhaps they are more familiar to most of us as "The Mormons".
Needless to say, we utterly abhor and detest the teaching of this body which denies the Godhead of our Lord Jesus Christ, the justice of God, the Gospel of Grace, and a dozen and one other basic doctrines of the Faith once delivered to the Saints. We abhor it just as much as Paul must have abhorred the teaching of those Gentiles with whom he compared the Corinthian Christians. Nevertheless, we have no hesitation in using their whole practical approach to their religion as a means of provoking those who profess the name of Christ to jealousy for that Name, and to action in making that Name known throughout the world, which is the Church's great mission.
Mormonism is a conversion religion; i.e. it isn't simply having your name nominally placed on a Church roll, but implies the involvement of every member. Each member must tithe, and fast at least two days per month, giving the money that would have been spent on the meals to the work of the Church. Mormons have a vast system of "Welfare"; something that is tragically lacking in Evangelical Christianity. At various centres there are erected what are known as "Bishops' Storehouses". Into these storehouses every Mormon contributes food and clothing as he believes he has been prospered. The "needy" - those out of work, etc., can then be supplied from these storehouses until they come to more prosperous times again.
For years, most people have associated the name Mormon with the sin of polygamy, but this no longer holds good except in some remote "sects" which have been outlawed by the main body of the Church. In fact, the living habits of the Mormons are high.
Young Mormons, of course, are a familiar sight to most of us, and we have all, no doubt, found ourselves opening our door to find two young Mormon evangelists on the step. This is part of the Church's programme. Every year about 6,000 of these young people are sent to the far corners of the world with the gospel according to Joseph Smith. The cost of their two-year "mission" is borne entirely by themselves or by their parents. Churches are established wherever the message of Mormonism finds a foothold, and as these churches increase in membership, they are divided into two or three separate churches so that the work might have a wider influence.
This is Mormonism. Perhaps this month's letter sounds like a "commercial" for the cult. But, I have already stated the motive behind the presenting of these stark facts about a religion that is completely and entirely of man. Surely it is to "stir us up" who name the Name of the only true God. Remember what the Hindu once said to the Christian missionary - "Your Christians", he said, "seem to be a lot of pretty ordinary people who make a lot of rather extraordinary claims".
Let us be frank and honest. Is our Church a Church of Jesus Christ, the only Begotten Son of the One and only God of this world and all creation; is our Church equal in zeal, in practice, in devotion, in sacrifice to the Church that calls itself the Church of Latter Day Saints? We claim to be those who are counted among the inhabitants of Zion; surely we are "at ease in Zion", and this ought not to be. Surely the Lord's voice is clear - "Do I praise thee for this? I praise thee not"; "Awake thou that sleepest and put on light".
