Tip of the Day, October 21

21 October

October 21 – Matthew 16:16-18; “And Simon Peter answered and said, Thou art the Christ, the Son of the living God.  And Jesus answered and said unto him, Blessed art thou, Simon Bar-jona: for flesh and blood hath not revealed it unto thee, but my Father which is in heaven.  And I say also unto thee, That thou art Peter, and upon this rock I will build my church; and the gates of hell shall not prevail against it.”

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As a little girl growing up a Mormon inUtahI read this passage of scripture and claimed this promise from Jesus.  I prayed that He’d keep the Christian church alive for when I could grow up and get out of Utah.  I wanted to meet the kind of Christians I read about in the Bible.

Notice in the Mormon writings it says; “to him the divine church did not exist on earth”.  So according to one man this whole thing (Mormonism) began.

What about God?

Did the church exist according to God?

Where in the Bible did it say a “fresh revelation” was needed?
Also notice the vocabulary they’ve chosen to use when referring to our Lord.  “…a church acceptable to Deity…”  This makes it sound like God is an impersonal thing or force out in the cosmos and not the loving Father we know from the Bible.

Pray for the Mormon people to have a personal relationship with Abba.  Only someone who doesn’t know Him would refer to Him in this manner.

Mr. Bennion’s explanation of Smith’s new teaching is also revealing.  He said that Smith was young and untutored.  That alone should be a red flag for everyone!  And how do you reestablish something but begin anew at the same time?

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“For him, the divine church of Christ did not exist on earth. A fresh revelation and a new dispensation were needed to bring back the gospel and a church acceptable to Deity. Joseph was not learned in Christian history or dogma. Young, untutored, and unaffiliated, he sought not to reform existing churches but began anew to reestablish the true Christian faith.”   Lowell L. Bennion, The Best of Lowell L. Bennion: Selected Writings 1928-1988, edited by Eugene England [Salt Lake City: Deseret Book Co., 1988], 82.

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