Alpha & Omega Ministries Apologetics Blog
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The Mormon Issue
04/29/2005 - James White
Mormonism is not Christianity. It is fundamentally different. While it differs in hundreds of minor details, what is most important to us is that it differs in the most definitional and fundamentalaspects from the Christian faith. Christianity worships one God. Christianity knows that there is one God who has eternally been God and is the Creator of all things exhaustively. Everything else in the Christian faith, from the Trinity to the atonement to the gospel to the resurrection, flows from and is defined by, this fundamental truth. And it is just here that we cannot help but hear the words of Joseph Smith when, addressing the idea that God has been God from all eternity, he said, "I will refute that idea, and take away the veil, so that you may see." Smith cannot refute God's truth, and of course, he failed to do so. But the result is beyond question: Mormonism, the system he founded, is not Christianity. It is a false religion with a false god. And if Mormonism is a false religion, then the believing Mormon is deceived and lost. There can be no other honest answer.And if we are truly concerned with pleasing God and rightly handling His truth, we will have to go one step further. As we saw in Isaiah 41:24, choosing to worship a false god is a fearful choice. The true God takes His sole rights to worship very seriously. When speaking to the idols, God says, He who chooses you is an abomination (to-evah). The teaching that God was once a man, and that men can become gods, involves simple idolatry, for it makes of God something that He is not, and lowers Him to the level of His creation. There is no salvation in such a god, and those worshipping this god are under the wrath of the true and living god.
---Is the Mormon My Brother? pp. 169-170.
02:00:00 - Category: Mormonism - Link to this article -
NO COMPROMISE Bands Are In
04/28/2005 - James White
With thanks to those of you who pre-ordered, we are thankful to announce that the NO COMPROMISE wrist bands arrived five days early. If you had been waiting to order yours until you knew they were actually sitting in the back room---well, they are sitting in the back room. And because a few of you noted that we were using the manufacturer's picture (what else could we use?), I snapped a shot of the real thing so you can see it.If you missed the announcement of these bands last week, I came up with the idea after watching so many in our post-evangelical age demonstrate that many no longer believe in Paul's own words, "For the gospel is the power of God unto salvation." Not "just any old gospel" but THE gospel. To compromise God's message of grace in Christ Jesus is to show tremendous disrespect to His Triune majesty and to a world in desperate need to hear the truth without diminishment. When you wear this band you are reminding yourself that the world will do everything in its power each and every day to silence you: to get you to compromise, not just on the essentials of the gospel, but in how you live in light of them--how you live consistently as one justified by grace through faith alone. And, of course, you are helping to support A&O.
Quick note: some folks want to "personalize" their bands. Sorry, folks, that doesn't work. It's like asking to "personalize" a book by adding or subtracting chapters. These are manufactured elsewhere, so you really can't "change" things. Might we do something like a "Stand Firm | Hold Fast" type band in a different color? Sure, if Rich and I aren't left using these as super-duper rubber bands for our annual in-office rubber-band fight, yeah (he's got a wicked shot). I'd love to. Bright green or orange or something---but that all depends on this first run. I've got mine! Do you have yours?
13:04:36 - Category: Mormonism - Link to this article -
A Different Jesus? Eerdmans Publishes LDS Apologetics Work
04/28/2005 - James White
As I look around my office I see literally hundreds of volumes produced by the venerable old Christian publishing house, Eerdmans. Many of my best resources bear that name on the spine. And I truly wonder what the founders of that company would think about its newest book.Robert Millet is the Richard L. Evans Professor of Religious Understanding and professor of ancient scripture at Brigham Young University. A believing Mormon, he has been key in the dialogues taking place between certain non-LDS scholars and pastors and LDS scholars from BYU. His book, Another Jesus?, though advertised by Eerdmans as a work "intended to inform rather than to convince or persuade," is pure apologetic from start to finish. You could find this kind of work at your local LDS bookstore, but thanks to Richard Mouw of Fuller Seminary, now you will be able to find it in your Christian bookstore, too! Yes, friends and neighbors, not only has Richard Mouw apologized for all of us mean-spirited folks who have labored to witness the true God and the true Christ and the true Gospel to Mormons for decades, but now he has made sure to provide a "Trojan Horse Apologetic," a work that attacks the Trinity, deity of Christ, sola scriptura, justification by grace through faith alone, the sovereignty of God in salvation, the finished work of Christ on the cross---OK, like I said, it is an LDS work of apologetics, so it is pretty well opposed to sound theology at just about every point---and he has made sure that book will be right there in your local Christian bookstore (how many bookstore owners will recognize it for what it is? Then again, what section will they put it in anyway?). Cards, roses, and copies of the Book of Mormon can be sent to Fuller Seminary in thanks. ...
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01:00:00 - Category: Mormonism - Link to this article -
Bill Hamblin Drops a Note
04/18/2005 - James White
I used the term "enclave" instead of "conclave" real late last night, and just got a note from William Hamblin of BYU pointing out my error. It is so nice to know I am kept to such a high standard by so many. He also informed me he read Scripture Alone. Rather random note, to be sure. Glad to hear that, too.I think I may take some time off blogging to prepare for the debate. That Spurgeon quote I posted a while back is really coming in handy these days.
12:31:20 - Category: Mormonism - Link to this article -
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