Tolerance

As you may know (I've mentioned it often enough) I've just written a book called The Saved Saint intended to promote greater tolerance, friendship and understanding between Latter-day Saints and Evangelical Christians.

And very timely it is if this article in the Baptist Times is anything to go by. We Mormons are used to this sort of abuse, of course. From Governor Boggs' extermination order in 1838 to the declaration by megachurch Pastor Robert Jeffress that “Evangelical Christians should not vote for Mitt Romney because he’s a Mormon, therefore not a real Christian,”  it's a case of same old same old.

So it's good to remind ourselves that not all evangelical Christians subscribe to these views. Some already know that people who worship and follow Christ as their saviour are entitled to be called Christians  even if they happen to attend a much-misunderstood church. My co-author on The Saved Saint is just such a Christian, and when I brought the Baptist Times article to her attention, she responded by writing this letter to them. Which, by the way, they are going to publish:

Dear Sir

I have to say I read the above article with deep disappointment.

I became a Christian, over twenty years ago, as a disengaged single-parent, through the love and acceptance I found within my local Baptist Church, who cared more about my heart than my words.  I became a founding member of a Mayland Baptist Church before a new career opportunity moved me to London and I joined Bonneville Baptist Church, now All Nations, in Clapham South. I currently attend a Vineyard Church, where I am Outreach Pastor, but maintain my Baptist links by studying with Spurgeon's College through distance learning for my theology degree. In composing my response I wanted to ensure that you understand my deep, deep respect and love I have for the Baptist tradition of Christianity.

It is this respect that has led to my disappointment that you would be prepared to print such an outdated and one-sided article as that titled Evangelising Mormons by Bobby Gilpin, printed on 17th October.  The arguments he uses against The Church of the Latter Day Saints are outdated and ill researched. President Snow served from 1898 to 1901, well over 100 years ago, I do not feel it is fair to try to influence people's opinions on any organisation or denomination by quoting such historical leaders, I am sure I would not have to look too hard to find many other Christian quotes from the period with all kinds of opinions from a wide range of subjects we no longer agree on. Quite apart from anything else our own doctrine says that God became Man, he was called Jesus.

The quote given from The book of Mormon in 2 Nephi 25:23 'For we labor diligently to write, to persuade our children, and also our brethren, to believe in Christ, and to be reconciled to God; for we know that it is by grace that we are saved, after all we can do.'

 is actually akin in meaning to the Biblical Isaiah 64:6

'All of us have become like one who is unclean, and all our righteous acts are like filthy rags; we all shrivel up like a leaf, and like the wind our sins sweep us away.'

It is basically saying that no matter how brilliant we are we still need grace  in order to be saved.

My understanding of  President Spencer W Kimball's rather damming statement that Mr Gilpin quotes is in fact the LDS equivalent to our own denomination's discussions on James, one cannot simply live as you like, sinning with impunity saying 'its ok God forgives me anyway.'

One of my closest friends is a member of The Church of the Latter Day Saints and, you can be sure, I looked carefully into their doctrine to see if she needed to be 'saved' however, given that all Churches have some incorrect doctrines as an inevitable consequence of the fall, I took my criteria from Romans 10:9-10:-

^'If you declare with your mouth, “Jesus is Lord,” and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved. For it is with your heart that you believe and are justified, and it is with your mouth that you profess your faith and are saved. '

Using this criteria and having had frank discussions with my friend and her husband and having visited her church on several occasions I can say that the Latter Day Saints I have met never stop declaring with their mouth that Jesus is their Lord and they believe wholeheartedly that God raised him from the dead. There are many things I disagree with within the LDS doctrine and I will not be joining their church however I strongly recommend them to you as Christian brothers and sisters with much to teach us about forgiveness and forbearance.

I praise God for the gift of evangelism He has given to Mr Gilpin but I would like to see him concentrate his efforts on the many, many millions in our world who are truly without Christ and also to hold 2 Tim 2:14 in his mind as non-Christians, seeing those they consider Christians arguing are not pulled towards the Father but rather have their preconceptions about the hypocrisy of the church confirmed and harden their hearts just that little bit further.

Thank you for taking the time to read this reply and I look forward to seeing more balanced and up to date articles appearing in your publication.

Yours in Him

Hellen Riebold

And that's why we wrote The Saved Saint together. You can buy it via this link.