WITNESSING TO MORMONS
By Jim Robertson
There are many things and information that can be used in witnessing
to your Mormon friend, relative or neighbor. Most all of these things
can be effective in your witness if it happens to strike his weak
spot. However, there are two basics that are very effective in planting
the seeds of doubt in his mind. Remember, our job is not to convert
anyone; we are only to plant the seeds and let the Holy Spirit do
His job of converting.
Stop to think about this. If you were to take away from the Mormon,
Joseph Smith and the Book of Mormon, the two very basic things that
are the heart and soul of Mormonism, what would he have left? He
wouldn't have anything left that he could use to prove Mormonism
is true. So in this newsletter we are going to talk about testing
Joseph Smith to see if he truly was a prophet of God as the Mormon
Church has claimed since 1830. In the next newsletter I will talk
about testing the Book of Mormon to see if it is a book of scripture
that comes from God.
God is very clear about how we apply a test to anyone who claims
to be a God ordained prophet. In Deuteronomy 18:20-22 says, "But
the prophet, which shall presume to speak a word in my name, which
I have not commanded him to speak, or that shall speak in the name
of other gods, even that prophet shall die. If thou shall say in
thine heart, How shall we know the word which the Lord hath not
spoken? When a prophet speaketh in the name of the Lord, if the
thing follow not, nor come to pass, that is the thing which the
Lord hath not spoken, but the prophet hath spoken it presumptuously:
thou shall not be afraid of him." In other words, it would only
take one false prophesy to make a false prophet. We've just recently
put together a book, "False Prophecies of Joseph Smith", that lists
54 false prophecies given by Joseph Smith that never came true.
Many of these were dated so the Mormon can't say, "it just hasn't
happened yet." For example, Doctrine & Covenants 84:1-5 says that
Smith received a revelation in 1832 from Jesus Christ telling him
that before that current generation passed away, a temple would
be built in the western boundaries of Missouri. Christians would
say that a generation is 40 years, but let's use the Mormon definition
of 100 years. So a hundred years from 1832 would be 1932. That was
70 years ago and there still is no temple in that location, and
there couldn't be anyone still alive from that time because they
would have to be over 170 years old. So that's one false prophesy
that couldn't be true. In a book written by Smith called "History
of the Church", Volume 2, page 182, Smith says in 1835 he received
a revelation from God that Smith was commanded to tell the people,
that the Lord was going to return in 56 years. That would mean that
Christ should have returned in 1891. We know that didn't happen.
So again, Joseph Smith gave a false prophesy. These two false prophesies,
plus the other 52 that are documented in the new book, is ample
evidence that Smith was a false prophet and God says we are not
to have anything to do with a man like this.
As for the need for prophets today and the need to receive continuing
revelation, the Bible is very clear. Hebrews 1:1-2 says that God
used to speak to the fathers through the prophets, but today He
speaks through His son, Jesus Christ. In Luke 16:16 it says that
John the Baptist was the last prophet because Jesus came after him.
So not only was Joseph Smith a false prophet, the Bible says that
the prophets of the Old Testament ended with John. The language
in the Old Testament was Hebrew and the Hebrew definition of the
word 'prophet' meant one who brings us God's word. In the New Testament,
the Greek language was the predominate one used. The Greek word
for prophet is defined as one who preaches from God's word. That's
a big difference and it means that every time a pastor preaches
in church, he is being a New Testament prophet. He is not bringing
new things to us from God, he is preaching from the existing word
of God because it is complete.
We now completely rely on our Lord, Jesus Christ and the word
that was established by God through the inspiration and instruction
given to the Old Testament prophets and the disciples of Jesus Christ,
both then and now.
