Blindness and Pride

Heart of the Matter – Show 31: Blindness and Pride

LIVE! From the “Mecca of Mormonism” Salt Lake City, Utah – THIS . . . is Heart of the MatterTGNN’s original show where Shawn McCraney deconstructed religion and developed fulfilled theology. . . . “Where Mormonism Meets Biblical Christianity Face to Face.” Show 31: Blindness and Pride, August 4th 2009. And I’m your host, Shawn McCraneyFounder of TGNN and developer of the fulfilled perspective—calling people to faith outside of religion..

If you have family or friends who cannot get Heart through television, give them a call and tell them to go to WWW.HOTM.TV and they can watch through streaming video from anywhere in the world!

I Was a Born-Again Mormon

The hard copy is on back order but remember, we recently made the manuscript available online through a downloadable PDF. Go to www.hotm.tv and you can have the book in your hands within minutes for any size donation – or for free for that matter. If you prefer a bound copy, you’re going to have to wait.

Well last Saturday we had about fifty kids show up at West High School. They came from all around the state. We had girls, boys, surfers, skiers, guitar players, punks, hacky-sack players, socialites, and tattooed teenage fathers with babies in their arms. These kids patiently and without pay all spent from 8am until after 3pm shooting the introduction for our up and coming teen program. I cannot thank them enough for their willingness, maturity, and generosity. It was hot, they were tired, but they came through like champions and we are so proud to have met each and every one of you. We also thank your parents who supported you in this – many of them staying the whole day too. We’ll let you all know when thegreygeneration is going to begin airing.

Burning Heart 09: The Big Tent Revival

Now, mark thy calendars for Burning Heart 09, the Big Tent Revival. This is our fourth annual say goodbye to summer interdenominational get together and we hope you and your churches will participate.

Saturday SEPT 5th 2009, from 5 to 8pm, Sugarhouse park. Bands (including Adams Road from Florida) and some other local talent will be there to inspire you. We HOPE – we HOPE you will take the initiative and invite people to attend.

Box Lunches from Subway will be available along with cotton candy, popcorn, inflated things for the kids, and church and ministry booths for the adults. Toward the end we’ll head inside a giant tent for the BIG TENT REVIVAL.

This event is certainly a time for fellowship, but we hope those of you who cannot say that you have been saved – Mormon, non-Mormon, we don’t care – come join us and give Jesus a chance. That’s Saturday Sept 5th 2009, Sugarhouse Park, 5 to 8 pm. Go to www.hotm.tv for sign up information.

You know, amidst EVERYTHING we cover on the program, there are a thousand side issues in the Mormon/Christian debates that sometimes go unnoticed. We get the LDS writing us and making huge efforts to defend some single position they think they are misunderstood upon not realizing that there are HUNDREDS of LDS issues that are just not Christian.

One of these side issues popped up before me the other day and I thought I would use it as an example tonight. It is no secret among the LDS that they recognize, refer to, and sing about a being they call, “Mother in Heaven.” In the LDS Manual, “Achieving a Celestial Marriage, 1976, page 129, it reads: “For as we have a Father in Heaven, so also we have a Mother there, a glorified, exalted, ennobled Mother.”

In an LDS publication called the Juvenile Instructor, dated April 15th 1894, a hymn was printed which was phrased and considered a “prayer to the Goddess” referring to the LDS Heavenly Mother, but nearly a hundred years later, while acknowledging the existence of a “Heavenly Mother,” President Gordon B. Hinckley said in a 1991 speech: “I consider it inappropriate for anyone in the church to pray to our Mother in Heaven.”

Still, the affirmation of the existence of God’s wife remains. In the present-day LDS hymnal, a number titled, “O My Father,” has a line, referring to heaven and the existence of a Heavenly Mother, that says: “Truth is reason, Truth eternal, Tells me I’ve a Mother there.”

Biblical Perspective on Heavenly Mother Concept

What would a Christian say about the notion of God the Father having a wife and that we have a Mother in Heaven? First of all, it flies in the face of how the Bible describes God – three personages in one. If the One true and living God had a wife, to which personage is she married? The Father, the Son, the Holy Spirit, or all three?

Secondly, the idea of a heavenly mother is counter to all the Bible ever says, including the idea that: God is NOT a man. God

The Concept of a Mother in Heaven

has no beginning or end. There is none before Him. He is Spirit. He is immutable.

The very IDEA that there is a mother in heaven directly implies that God Himself is insufficient – that He is lacking somehow – and needs, well, a wife. Thirdly, the idea of a mother in heaven is counter to the Bible’s teaching that Jesus – the Word – created all things. All. Not a heavenly set of parents in skin and bones copulating to create spirits – but Jesus created ALL things.

Counterarguments to a Mother in Heaven

It would be illogical and against biblical Christianity to believe the Bible that Jesus created all things and that He had a Mother in Heaven. Finally, the ONLY time the Bible even mentions what we could consider a female goddess is in Jeremiah.

In Jeremiah 7:18 God speaks of whole families involved in worshipping pagan gods when He says:

“The children gather wood, the fathers kindle the fire, and the women knead dough, to make cakes for the queen of heaven; and they pour out drink offerings to other gods, that they may provoke Me to anger.”

The Queen of Heaven was actually the female moon goddess Ashtoreth or Astarte: who was the wife of Baal or Moloch, considered the king of heaven. These male and female pairs of deities symbolized the “generative powers of nature,” and from them came the introduction of prostitution in pagan worship rituals. Where the idea of a queen in heaven produced prostitution in pagans back in the day, the idea of a mother or mothers in heaven produced polygamy in Mormonism present.

Historical Context and Modern Implications

Give that cause and effect some thought. What is really interesting about the ancient belief in a feminine goddess is what happened to the Children of Israel when they ABANDONED their sacrifices to her. Listen – they said in Jeremiah 44:18:

“But . . . since we stopped burning incense to the queen of heaven, and to pour out drink offerings unto her, we have wanted all things, and have been consumed by the sword and by the famine.”

In other words, when they stopped their sacrifices to this pagan goddess their wealth and protection ended. The God of this world REWARDS with the things of this world. This speaks volumes present day.

God is God. He is eternal, omnipotent, uncreated, not a man, and without a wife or wives. There is NO MOTHER IN HEAVEN. And this LDS concept is just another twist from biblical Christianity, one of hundreds in their claims of following the true and living God.

And with that, let’s have a prayer.

PRAYER PRAYER PRAYER

PRAYER PRAYER PRAYER

Last week, we had the pleasure of receiving a most informative if not revelatory call from a man who said his name was “Ed.” What made Ed’s call so priceless was he embodied – EMBODIED – what we have claimed is the final product of Mormon doctrine: Blindness and Pride.

Not ten minutes earlier in the program I read a question from a viewer who asked what amazes me most about the LDS people. My answer:
The blindness and the pride.

Then Ed called.

When a math teacher is teaching math and a sparrow flies in the room, the best teachers will put down the math book start teaching about sparrows. Last week a sparrow – or more like a hawk – flew into the studio and I think the exchange is worthy of review. First, Ed said he wanted to know more about me and asked if he could ask me some questions about my person.

Now, this is far more important to the LDS mind than some viewers might realize for two substantive reasons:

First, the religion is centered on Man – what he is, who he is, what he has done, how successful he is, and how much of a failure he has been – so all people are held up to this scrutiny. The second reason this is important is because when someone criticizes the LDS faith, the attack is always reversed on the individual having personal failures or bad intent, because the religion is perfect.

Get it?

So Ed said he wanted to know more about me?

It’s important to know that within Mormonism, the GREATEST claim they have consistently made against Christianity has to do with the MONEY pastors and preachers make. This thinking dates back to the temple where Satan hires a protestant preacher to teach the Gospel, saying he would be “well paid.” Of course they ignore the biblical instructions FROM GOD that it is expected that laborers in the Lords

Exploring Rejections and Reception in Jesus' Day

Vineyard are worthy of their hire, and have twisted this biblical perspective in order to castigate and condemn. Once I answered his question about how the ministry was funded, we jumped to another classic attack. Let’s watch it:

Go to board

Last week at our Bible study, we listed on the chalk board descriptions of what people were like in Jesus day who accepted and received Him and then we described the general characteristics of those who rejected him.

Then after listing all sorts of personal and general characterizations, we asked a question: “What is different about those who receive and/or reject Him today?

The answer: NOTHING!

The Foolishness in God's Wisdom

Listen to what the Word says in 1st Corinthians 1

1st Corinthians 1:25 Because the foolishness of God is wiser than men; and the weakness of God is stronger than men. For ye see your calling, brethren, how that not many wise men after the flesh, not many mighty, not many noble, are called: but God hath chosen the foolish things of the world to confound the wise; and God hath chosen the weak things of the world to confound the things which are mighty; and base things of the world, and things which are despised, hath God chosen, yea, and things which are not, to bring to nought things that are: that no flesh should glory in his presence.

“That no flesh should glory in his presence . . . Ed.”

Focus on the Lost

Let me make this clear once again: Our ministry appreciates people who are accomplished. But our focus is on the LOST, the DISAFFECTED, and the STRUGGLING LDS who have never had a chance in that faith for one reason or another. This is who Jesus went to. This is who we go to. When Ed couldn’t get anywhere with the way I appear, he brought out another rhetorical weapon – my sinMissing the mark of faith and love—no punishment, just lost growth or peace.. I, in turn, attempted to then question him about his sin. Let’s watch:

My Comments? ? ?

James 2:10 For whosoever shall keep the whole law, and yet offend in one point, he is guilty of all.

Let’s look at the next attack.

Now Ed and I are assigning pejorative terms to each other. I am calling him a Pharisee – a description he fit perfectly, and he is calling me a FRAUD. Let’s watch:

Transparency and Accusations

Now, I’m unsure of the use of this term. I really try to be transparent in everything I do. Honesty is important to me, though I am not always honest. Being a fraud has an intonation of presenting something that I know is not true. I think Ed really wants to believe that somehow my entire presentation is fraudulent so as to cope with what he is seeing and hearing.

We then have an interesting moment. I am trying to think of what to say having been accused of being a fraud and outright liar – that, according to Ed, most everything that comes out of my mouth is a lie. And so I sort of do a tongue in cheek reversal and make a sarcastic statement: Now just listen to how Ed reacts to this:

By this time in the discussion, we can see Ed’s mindset – a complete product of Mormon doctrine, teachings, and practice, coming through. This opens a window for us.

Perspective on Christianity and Mormonism

Now, remember, he said that, “Of course he is a Christian.” His statement was akin to the Pharisees saying matter-of-factly that they had Abraham as their father. “Of course.” We’ll, now I get to sort of bring it all home. What does it really mean to be a Christian according to the Bible and is Ed truly a Christian? Let’s take a listen:

With one minute left, we summarized the whole matter. This is how it went:

People who do not know the Lord are ALWAYS asking why we do what we do? People who know the Lord understand. Mormonism produces in its people a blindness and pride that is antithetical to the spirit and gospel of Jesus Christ. That Gospel, that Good News, has NOTHING to do with our contributions – but it has everything to do with Jesus – with His contributions, with His birth, life, deathSeparation from God—now overcome. Physical death remains, but it no longer separates us from life with God., and resurrection. We hope this exchange will serve to illustrate – at least to Christians, if not to the LDS – that Mormonism produces a different “good news” one that in the end, is going to prove bad news, after all.

Biblical Christianity and Works

One of the MAIN elements of biblical Christianity is the fact that Jesus saves us by His shed blood ONLY. Our works are filthy and meaningless to a God who allowed His incarnate Son to shed His blood for our sins! One verse! Listen:

Galatians 2:16 "Knowing (Ed, knowing) that a man is not justified by the works of the law but by faith in Jesus Christ, even we have believed in Christ Jesus, that we might be justified by faith in Christ and not by the works of the law; for by the works of the law no flesh shall be justified.”

Final Thoughts

All right, let's go to the phones: (801) 973-TV20 (801) 873-8820. First time callers, please. LDS callers if at all possible. Have our television sets turned down. And try and ask your questions or make your comments succinctly and quickly.

So while the operators are clearing the calls, let's go to a break and show this important message about the ministry. Please know that we appreciate all your help, support, and love no matter how it arrives or in what form. This Partners program just really helps us plan and manage our affairs in a timely and sustainable fashion. Here goes:

Conclusion: And remember: “If Mormonism is true, then the Bible is a lie.” See you next week . . .