The Bible, Part 1

The Groundwork of Human Freedom

"It is impossible to enslave socially or mentally a Bible-reading people. The principles of the Bible are the groundwork of human freedom."
Horace Greeley

"There is no ground at all for refusing to accept these oldest traditions (in the Bible) as historically trustworthy in all essentials and in their chronological ordering of history."
Professor Edward Meyer, University of Berlin, one of the greatest authorities on ancient history.

Heart of the Matter

Show 28 403 The Bible Part I
July 8th 2014

“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”

And I’m your host, Shawn McCraneyFounder of TGNN and developer of the fulfilled perspective—calling people to faith outside of religion.. We praise the true and living God for allowing us to be part of this His ministry.

Invitation to a Conference

Okay – to all interested parties. Our ministry sent a letter out just yesterday. This is what it says:

Dear Reverend, Pastor, Leader, Preacher or Apologist,

My name is Shawn McCraney and I am called as a teacher of the Word of God in the State of Utah. Due to our work in bringing people out of Mormonism (and into a saving relationship with the Lord Jesus Christ) we are frequently asked by former Latter-Day Saints, “What church do you recommend we attend having just come out of Mormonism?” For years, and in an effort to keep peace and help build the local churches, our standard reply was, “Golly-gosh, any good Bible-teaching church is worthy of your consideration.” Sadly, time (and maturity) now force us to say otherwise.

Since the main focus of our ministry is help bring Latter-day Saints into a living (which includes a continuing) relationship with the Lord the church (denomination, sect) a former Latter-day Saint attends can play a significant role in the spiritual life they lead. I know from first-hand experience that after forty years of activity in the LDS church adjusting to another church can be difficult. Admittedly (and unfortunately) most of this is the result of culture shock. But when the rubber meets the road there are factors far more important for an exiting Latter-day Saint than adjusting to church culture – the most pressing being sound doctrine and praxis.

With this in mind our church/ministry is working on a conference aimed at making as many of the doctrinal and practical differences between Calvinism, Arminianism, Catholicism, Mormonism, and Reconciliationism clear. This letter is an invitation for you to either participate (or to help arrange someone from your particular sect or denomination) to do the same. The set-up of this conference is simple – allow the best spokesperson for Calvinism, Open-Theism, Arminianism, Catholicism, Mormonism, and Reconciliationism to articulate the merits of their doctrine and practices uninterrupted and before a live audience. Once all presentations have been delivered there will be an open Q and A. Each presentation will be recorded and reproduced (unedited) for public dissemination.

THIS IS NOT A DEBATE.

In fact, mocking, cheering or inappropriate applause will not be tolerated. We are holding this conference in hopes of providing people (who are seeking for clarity on church doctrine and practice) with a reliable resource that they can appeal to in their personal search to understand God, Christianity, and His Word. We hope this event will serve as an opportunity for well-spoken representatives of each particular faith-system to clearly explain the theology they hold true and to make their best pitch as to why their respective theology represents God (and His Word) best.

So there it is – we’ve extended the invitation. If you know of an individual you believe would best represent the tenets of your faith please have them respond to this initial invitation by emailing or calling me directly. We are looking to February 2015 for the date and venue. All travel costs will be covered and an honorarium will be paid.

Thus far we have made verbal invitations (without commitments) to:

Dr. Greg Boyd – Open Theism
Dr. RC Sproul – Reformed Theology
Dr. Robert Millet – Mormonism
Dr. David Allen – Arminianism

We’re calling the event, “Sunday’s Best.” We hope you will be led by the King to help us put it together in a manner that will be pleasing to Him.

Thank you for your consideration and help.

If you know anyone who would be interested and qualified to participate in this important and needed conference, please have them call us at

1

Exploring Biblical Dimensions

888 868-4686

Or email me at

shawn@alatheamedia.com

And with that let’s have a word of prayer.

PRAYER PRAYER PRAYER PRAYER PRAYER PRAYER PRAYER PRAYER

Last week we illustrated a number of different white board heuristics for you to consider relative to Christianity and how the Bible describes it. There is one thing I want to point out before we move on to our next topic tonight. Last week I explained (briefly) the four dimensions I find described in scripture.

(Go to board – appeal to dimensions)

• Point out that while Smith may have created his own explanation of this his teachings do echo some of the things we discussed last week.
• For example, Smith described the lowest kingdom in Mormonism (the telestial) as a place where adulterers and liars and murderers go. I would liken this description to un-repentant people who die without Jesus who we find in the first and second dimension of human existence.
• Smith then describes the next level of His fictional heavens as the Terrestrial. Do you know who He said go there? Good men and women who had a witness of Jesus but refused the LDS way. I would say, using our model, as the third dimension believers who receive Jesus, but never grow.
• Finally, Smith said that those who embrace Mormonism would enter the Celestial Kingdom. The idea is not unique to Smith – it merely describes what the Bible already teaches and we would liken it to those who enter and live by fourth dimension principles and become . . . Joint Heirs with Christ.

I point all of this out NOT to endorse Smith in any way. But the man was intelligent and he did know his Bible. The sad thing is he allowed himself to step outside of its boundaries and concoct a counterfeit – one that looks and appears so similar, but is truly another Gospel.

The Role of the Bible in Faiths

Now, I know many of you have got this part down but I want to quickly illustrate what we are doing here and why.

So, the Bible. Foundational to any Christian faith and even to those faiths that step outside its authority. On the one hand, in the Mormon/Christian debate we have the LDS who in all honesty – truly – do not pay much true attention to the Bible and the attention they do give it has been somewhat overshadowed by the fact that they believe it has NOT been translated correctly and by the fact that they do NOT teach what the Bible says but instead teach Mormonism using the Bible.

On the other hand, we have Christianity which admittedly centers itself (or at least it should center itself) on the contents of this book. Trouble is, there are all sorts of divisions, and differences, and sectarian arguments and denominational views that spring out from the very same passages and pages.

We’ll get to this extremely paradoxical situation found in Christianity writ large but tonight we are going to take what the LDS say about the Bible, examine it, and trash what is boloney while retaining what is good and acceptable.

Scriptural Mandate for Writing

Exodus 17:14, it says:

“And the LORD said unto Moses, Write this for a memorial in a book, and rehearse it in the ears of Joshua.”

Isaiah 30:8 it reads:

“Now go, write it before them in a table, and note it in a book, that it may be for the time to come for ever and ever.”

Jeremiah wrote in chapter 30:2:

“Thus speaketh the LORD God of Israel, saying, Write thee all the words that I have spoken unto thee in a book.”

Habakuk 2:2 reports:

“And the LORD answered me, and said, Write the vision, and make it plain upon tables, that he may run that readeth it.”

Paul wrote in 1st Corinthians 14:37:

“If any man think himself to be a prophet, or spiritual, let him acknowledge that the things that I write unto you are the commandments of the Lord.”

John the Beloved wrote in 1st John 2:13:

“I write unto you, fathers, because ye have known him that is from the beginning. I write unto you, young men, because ye have overcome the wicked one. I write unto you, little children, because ye have known the Father.”

Peter wrote in 1st Peter 1:25:

“But the word of the Lord endureth for ever. And this is the word which by the gospel is preached unto you."

Peter called Paul’s writings “scripture” in 2nd Peter 3:16.

Jesus Himself said

The Reliability of the Bible

To John in Revelation 1:11:

“I am Alpha and Omega, the first and the last: and, What thou seest, write in a book, and send it unto the seven churches which are in Asia.”

I have a question: Why did God tell all of these men, all the way back 3500 or so years, to write? Why does Jesus say

(Mt 24:35) Heaven and earth shall pass away, but “my words” shall not pass away. Why did the Psalmist write that God “magnifies His Word above His own name?” How can God expect people to “keep His commandments” if the record of His commandments are not reliable? Is the God who created everything from nothing, who measures the heavens with the span of his hand, who controls all things powerful enough to bring the words He commanded men to write forward to this day and age unscathed? These are just a few – of the hundreds – of questions I have regarding the certainty of God’s holy word known as the Bible.

Attacks on the Scriptures

There seems to be a couple central themes enemies of Christianity go after when it comes to attacking the faith – The first is when they go after the deity, person, and story of Jesus (you know, His resurrection, etc.) But in close second – which we are going to talk about tonight – comes the reliability and exclusivity of the Bible as God’s Holy Word.

We have long maintained that if someone can remove a person’s trust in the Bible as reliable and/or get them to believe that other writings are just as valid (if not more) than you can get anyone to believe anything you want. It happens all the time. One remarkable fact about the Bible is that in and of itself it has no “owner” here on earth. Have you ever thought of that? Additionally, in and of itself, within its covers, it has everything necessary to lead any person to salvation and to then serve as a guide to the Christian walk which I might add is a subjective personal walk and not a corporate, institutional one.

Two-Pronged Attacks on God's Word

The same cannot be said of other religious books that are proprietary products of the religions they endorse, like “Dianetics,” “A Course in Miracles,” “The Koran,” and/or “The Book of Mormon.” And yet so many people who are willing to place their faith and trust in books like these (and some even more far fetched) insist on labeling the Bible as faulty, fiction, or the manipulation of man. I’m telling you, the fact that Bible believing Christians can be tricked and mislead tells us something about the cunning nature of spiritual deception. But get people to reject the trustworthiness of the Bible and you can get almost anyone to embrace almost anything.

One man who understood this premise very well was the imaginative Joseph Smith, Jr. Back in 1827 through 1829 Joseph had been telling people in his wooded community that he was visited by an angel (on the eve of the Autumnal equinox, no less) who revealed to him that there were some buried golden plates hidden in a hill near his home. Over the course of around seven years Joseph had been promising to bring forth this new book once he had translated it and he assured many that this was going to be a new book of ancient scripture. Once the book known as the Book of Mormon,” was published a reader could open it up and within thirty pages begin reading built-in attacks on the Bible:

In 1st Nephi 13:38 it says (of the Bible):

“Wherefore thou seest that after the book (meaning the Bible) hath gone forth through the hands of the great and abominable church (meaning the Catholics) that there are MANY PLAIN AND PRECIOUS THINGS TAKEN AWAY FROM THE BOOK which is the book of the Lamb of God.”

In other words, the Bible cannot be trusted. Not too many pages later, in 2nd Nephi, the Book of Mormon presents a built-in justification for its own existence relative to the Bible, by having God say:

“Wherefore, because you have a Bible ye need not suppose that it contains all my words; neither need ye suppose that I have not caused more to be written.” (2nd Nephi 29:6)

So right in the founding writings of Mormonism we discover the two-pronged method of attacking God’s Word: It states that the Bible cannot be trusted, and, that there are other writings that can.

This method is used by scientologists, Christian scientists, Jehovah’s Witnesses, Muslims, and almost every single religious group centered on the ideas and thoughts of Man instead of

The LDS and the Bible

What men of God were told to write.

As time passed, Joseph Smith continued to subtly demean the reliability of the Bible. In an LDS article of Faith, he said: “We believe the Bible to be the Word of God as far as it is translated correctly.” Unfortunately, the way and method that the LDS determine if a biblical verse has been “translated correctly or not” is not through scholarship and the study of ancient language but WHETHER the Bible passage in question supports Mormon doctrine or not!

Founding prophet Joseph Smith is quoted (in TOTPJS page 310) as also saying: “There are many things in the Bible which do not, as they now stand, accord with the revelations of the Holy Ghost to me.” From this little collection of subtle statements Joseph Smith released against the Bible while alive, a giant dismissive has within Mormondom snowballed against trusting God’s Holy Word called the Bible.

Influential LDS Leaders on Biblical Integrity

Late LDS Apostle – APOSTLE! – Orson Pratt said: “Who, in his right mind, could, for one moment, suppose the Bible in its present form to be a perfect guide? Who knows that even one verse of the Bible has escaped pollution?” APOSTLE Bruce McConkie (APOSTLE) wrote that: “Satan guided his servants in taking many plain and precious things, and many covenants of the Lord, from the Bible, SO THAT MEN WOULD STUMBLE AND FALL AND LOSE THEIR SOULS!” In 1991, Brigham Young University (ahem) Professor, Robert Matthews, wrote: “Soon after the New Testament was written there were persons among the Gentiles who systematically, with wicked motives and evil intent, removed portions of the sacred Word, and took from the Bible much very important doctrinal information.”

So even though the LDS include the Bible in the four books they call scripture, the bottom-line reality is the Bible, within Mormonism proper, is considered unreliable, especially compared to the BOM, considered corrupt to some degree or another, is NOT taught but is truly only reviewed in a sense, highlighting areas that support LDS thought and teachings, and is inferior to other LDS scripture and modern-day revelation.

I suggest to you here and now, that the SINGLE most damaging doctrine, teaching, and attitude in Mormonism today is NOT their strange and esoteric teachings, NOT their history, NOT their temple rites and rituals. These things are all the result of the single most damaging doctrine Joseph ever introduced to these people, which is that the Bible cannot be trusted and the Bible is not enough.

The Consequences of Viewing the Bible as Untrustworthy

So what is the result of Joseph Smith (and those who followed him) saying that the Bible is not to be completely trusted? Every time a Latter-day Saint reads the Bible, they discount it in their heart if not their mind. Every time they read a passage that causes them to think, they put it in the “not correctly translated” bin and dismiss the thought that challenges their faith in the teachings of Smith.

It is high time for Latter-day Saints – especially if they want to be considered Christian, to take their QUAD’S or “four in one books of scripture” and rip three of those books out, toss them in the garbage, and search the only book of the four that not only claims to have been authored by God Himself but is the only book their four written from real men, with real histories, from real cities, and who did not know each other.

So to the board, for Mormonism to every stand on a level playing ground with Christianity, it has to trash its errant assumptions about the Bible, and then toss the three man-made books Smith provided them right on in thereafter.

Let’s open up the phone lines 801.

You know while the operators are clearing your calls we gather every Sunday here in our church/studio. 10 am for Milk, 2:30 pm for Meat. We not only study the Word verse by verseTGNN’s Bible teaching series—book-by-book, through the lens of fulfillment and spiritual liberty. but we sing it too – and you will learn passages in and through this method. Here are some of the songs we use:

You can get this music on CD’s by going to our website at www.hotm.tv but for those of you who are iTunes friendly, you can now obtain all of these verses set to music by going to iTunes and typing in Mallory McCraney.

Alright, remember we are looking for the very best representatives from Calvinism, Mormonism, Arminianism, Catholicism, and Open Theism to come to Salt Lake and tell us why their views on God are best.

Have them call us at 888 868-4686.

Missionary Tools

The Mormon church is moving forward with its plan to arm missionaries with iPad minis and broaden their proselytizing to social media. A test program that began last fall with 6,500 missionaries serving in the United States and Japan went well, prompting the initiative's expansion, The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints said in a news release this week. Church leaders expect to have the specially configured mobile devices in the hands of more than 32,000 missionaries by early 2015. Using the iPad minis has proved an effective tool for missionaries to communicate with church leaders and keep in touch with people who have expressed interest in joining the Mormon church, said David F. Evans, director of the church's missionary department, in a video posted on Mormonnewsroom.org.

"We know in many parts of the world, the traditional forms of proselyting work very, very well," Evans said. "In some other places where technology and urban life has developed in such a way that missionaries have a harder time contacting people, we hope that these tools become even more valuable in those places." Scholars say this is the latest example of the LDS church's gradual embrace of the digital age and its recognition that door-to-door proselytizing is not the most effective way to expand church membership.

Expanding the Program

The program will expand to all missions in United States, Canada, Japan and western Europe. The iPad minis are outfitted with several apps that help men and women in their missionary work, including a gospel app that includes scriptures, manuals, magazines and other teaching materials. Missionaries are encouraged to use Facebook to find new members. "You think about what you've seen missionaries try to carry in their backpacks over the years, and all of that fits into a very nice, small, compact device that they can take with them and utilize in their teaching and their proselytizing," Evans said.

In April 2013, the church also loosened its rules on Internet use for missionaries, allowing them to send emails to friends, priesthood leaders and new converts. Previously, missionaries could only email immediate family members. Some have worried that giving youngsters more access to the Internet could lead to distractions and wasted time. Speaking to that, Evans said the "only really effective filter for lifelong technology use is the individual heart and mind of the individual young person."

Missionary Costs

Missionaries who come from developed countries will cover the $400 cost of the iPad mini, which will remain theirs after the mission, Evans said. The church will work to help missionaries from other countries who can't afford the cost, Evans said. Missionaries already pay about $400 a month to serve a mission, which lasts two years for men and 18 months for women. Some buy their own bicycles, too. The church has more missionaries around the globe than at any time in history, spurred by an unprecedented influx after the church in October 2012 lowered the minimum age for missionaries from 21 to 19 for women and from 19 to 18 for men. There are now 86,000 missionaries, up from 58,000 in October 2012. That total is expected to peak at 88,000 later this year before settling in at around 77,000 next year, Evans said.

I heard the most disturbing story last week. It was about a man who was in the process of getting a divorce from his wife and who attended church – where He was asked to leave. I’ve heard stories like this over the years and they baffle the hell out of me. Other than the loss of a loved one when would a person need church MORE in their life tan when they are going through a divorce? I mean really, what are we doing in Jesus name? (beat) Hey, I’ve got a question for you all? I have a friend whose a brilliant attorney and he posed a similar question to me the other day. Now think about this for a minute. On the one hand let’s say we have a couple of homosexuals who love each other. I stand with the Bible that homosexuality is a sinMissing the mark of faith and love—no punishment, just lost growth or peace. but on the one hand we have this couple and they are interested in knowing Jesus. Got them in mind? Then on the other hand we have an LDS church conference where the Leaders are not spewing hate toward the gays but they are sitting on

Religious Hypocrisy

High platforms, and are dressed to the nines, and are puffed up by their social status and are teaching a gospel version that is absolutely contrary to the Good News. They are burdening their listeners with tithes and offerings in Jesus' name, making mincemeat of widow’s houses, heaping Sabbath day observances on people's backs, and making people feel badly if they are not temple attenders. Got that image in your head?

Contrasting Jesus' Approach

Now, just ask yourselves – based on what Jesus was like when He walked the earth – which scenario would get Jesus’ goat the most? Truly?

Condemnation of Religious Puffery

If you know your Bible at all you KNOW that the Lord and King hated religious puffery. I mean, he ate with sinners, and worked with them in helping them see Him for who He was, but an entire chapter (Matthew 23) is dedicated to Him ripping the attitudes of the religiously pious apart! Why are we doing the same thing?