HOTM Ministry Focus
Live from SLC Utah, this is HOTM, where we do all we can to worship God in Spirit and truth. I’m your host, Shawn McCraney.
Ministries We Support
I want to open tonight up with a quick and open run-down of some things THIS ministry is REALLY interested in and why. For starters, there are three ministries we love that are outside this one that we like to promote to you:
Exmormonfiles.org
TalkingtoMormons.com
And now, Checkmychurch.org
Now, there are a lot of ministries out there and they do a wonderful job. So, why do we choose to promote these three? Honestly? Because I like the people who run and host them, I appreciate their stance in the faith. They are even-keeled, they are reasonable, and they are either former Mormons who really get what it means to have been LDS (in the case of Exmormonfiles.org and TalkingtoMormons.com) OR they have experienced Christianity and all of its shenanigans and get the issues (as in the case of Checkmychurch.org).
Other ministries out there, to be frank, are either run by people who have never been LDS (and yet they speak at them as if they really understand what it is like to have been LDS) or they have been LDS but they have bought into Evangelicalism (in some shape or form) HOOK, LINE, and SINKER. Why would we support a ministry that works to get Mormons out of Mormonism and then justifies sending these poor unmoored extricated souls into another form of religious bondage? WHICH MOST OF THEM DO!
See, these people think that in order to stay alive in Christian Ministry, they have to play it safe or at least take a side. So they either embrace Arminianism, or Calvinism, or Orthodoxy, or some set of standards established and pushed on us by MAN – Satan is our enemy who must be fought! Jesus is coming back to destroy the world! Sin needs to be exposed! The Bible is absolutely inerrant! Hell is a reality awaiting most people! The Trinity MUST be embraced! God hates fags . . . you know, all this schtuff –
And then having made these stands they REFUSE to hear ANY other views. I don’t know all the theological beliefs of the people who run these three ministries, but what I do know about them is they do NOT allow them to infiltrate their ministries, but instead focus on sharing the biblical approach to Jesus . . . and in the case of Checkmychurch . . . the manipulations of Man in religion today.
Since I am on this, it is a real shame, in my estimation, that so many people have been confronted with truths that will help liberate others in the name of God but they will not make a stand on them, for fear of losing ground with the Christians and Churches who support them. I find it personally unconscionable . . . but if they want to live in such cowardice, that is between them and God. So, there are those ministries.
Publications Available for Your Benefit
Show 7 Changes in the Faith Now! February 12th, 2019, HOTM
I also want to remind you that we have some publications available for your benefit – they were created to help you think and consider elements of the faith that scream for attention. Let me run them down for you:
EBOOKS (digital version) are available for free download at HOTM.faith are:
The ChristianAnarchist Crookbook (Vol. I)
Eternal Punishment
It’s Not the End of the World
Knife to a Gunfight
These are yours free as a gift. Below you can download one or both in either a PDF version or an .EPUB version of which you can open in an ebook reader like iBooks (Mac) or your favorite ebook reader like Calibre (Mac, PC). ALSO, KNIFE TO A GUNFIGHT IS ALSO AVAILABLE IN AUDIOBOOK (FOR FREE) AND Paperback. We then have a few other books available to you:
“I Was a Born-Again Mormon”
Is available only via PDF – so email me – it’s free.
“If My Kingdom were of this World then My Servants Would Fight” And a workbook titled, “The End of Material Religion”
Is available through the mail. But if you are overseas or international, we ask that you request the PDF version please.
Finally, we have the Encyclopedia-type volume:
“Where Mormonism Meets Biblical Christianity Face to Face”
And while we will send these out to you free, it costs us quite a bit and we reluctantly (but out of necessity) request you purchase it – unless you come to CAMPUS because anyone who comes to CAMPUS on a visit gets all their materials free. Always. Always has been this way. Got all of that? Then
Music and Memorization
We have music – from Steve Utley which is hard and heavy and fantastic for you hard and heavy music people. You can get Steve’s music at
And here is a sample: (PLAY A SAMPLE OF STEVE’S MUSIC)
Additionally, we commissioned my daughter Mallory (who is a degreed musician) to put the Word of God to music. There are modern-day Psalms and we did this because in and through hearing and singing them people can learn the Word of God. There are FIVE full CDs of music – all of them are verbatim passages of scripture orchestrated specifically for memorization. These have not taken off in the world of smarmy, fugly, emotive Christian worship music – I mean who would want to learn the word over shouting to Jesus that he is our girlfriend, “Oh How He loves.”
HERE IS A SAMPLE OF MALLORY”S MUSIC
PLAY SAMPLE
So, listen, if you want to get some of the best passages into your mind – which is where all the warfare begins and ends – check these CDs out by going to: iTunes, Amazon Music, Spotify, Apple Music, YouTube Music, Pandora, Deezer, Napster, Verve live, Tidal, AND EVERY SINGLE MUSIC PROVIDER System on earth. Just type in Mallory McCraney in the search box of artists and you’ll find it.
Expanding Christian Teachings
Finally, in addition to 400 hours of our own content about Mormonism (available on HOTM.TV 1.0) and another 300 plus attacking insipid Evangelical rhetoric (HOTM 2.0). We have over 50 short shows called Christianitytoday, which are being promoted at two universities in the US every week of this year. These are aimed at helping our Christian College students stand against the tide of failing Evangelical answers and to remain devoted to God through Christ-Jesus.
Then most of you know that we also hold two verse by verse teachings every Sunday – one at 10AM and one at 2:30 – respectively called Milk and Meat. We have gone through more than half of the New Testament and have pretty much only the shorter epistles remaining to cover in the future – except for the Gospel of Luke. All of these are archived for YOU – you can do your own at home Bible study with or through them or you can even use the streaming services as your church.
The TVAR Project
Finally, all of this has led us to a Herculean project that we are engaged in and have promoted in the recent past to you. We are calling it the TVAR and that is the working acronym for another, never seen before version of the New Testament, or what we call the Apostolic Letters. Folks, friends, supporters – we need you to join us in this production and frankly you will, in the end, WANT to have been involved in supporting us in this.
It is coming together . . . tediously . . . and has proven to be the greatest challenge of my life – and I’ve paddled to Catalina Island from Long Beach, swam in college, served a Mormon Mission, been married 34 years, raised three girls, and oversee this ministry. NOTHING has been more challenging, taxing, exhausting, consuming, or difficult than this . . . but I am telling you from the bottom of my heart, it WILL be a tremendous contribution to Christians all over the world someday, and I not only need your support, you will be proud to have your name in the first edition as a supporter when they come out in 2023 (God willing).
So what I am doing is three runs through the New Testament. The first run I am reading every word, considering the Greek, the KJV, and the Critical Text. I am making adjustments accordingly. I am then colorizing the text in black, bold black, and red – depending on the application the passage has to a Christian in this day and age.
In the first pass I am also making references to other passages (in both the Old and New Testament) which will help round out or support the passage in question. These are cited in the numbered footnotes below. I am simultaneously pointing out any major issue with the text in terms of contradictions, the Greek, or between the Received text and or the Critical Text.
Then as I go, topics that come up are noted and created in a CLARIFICATIONS file with the verse cited in question. For instance, every time we come to a passage that speaks to hell, or YHWH, or eschatology, that specific CLARIFICATION file will be referenced.
Writing the Manuscript for TVAR
It will take 2.5 years at nearly 35 hours a week. I will submit the manuscript to an editor and compose the contents of all the clarification files, which will be in the hundreds but of tremendous value to the reader of the TVAR. That should take a year. The last year and a half will be spent fine-tuning the volume, getting the style and approach down, and then transferring it to a free downloadable Electronic Bible to any and all high school or college-aged kids. We will also print several thousand for those who choose a hardcopy for purchase.
Before we get to our topic tonight, just know you can go to our site, click on the Menu bars, choose TVAR and you can get all sorts of other information you might need to choose to support this endeavor. IF NOTHING ELSE, please pray for us. And share this project with others who may have an interest.
Television Interview
Nearly a year ago, I had a television production company approach me (they are the ones who do the MythBuster series) and wanted to do an online interview to show networks that are looking for a reality TV host. In the interview, I was asked about the things that I am about and interested in – cooking, restaurants, motorcycles, fishing – man-stuff that a show could be created around.
I frankly explained that I am not interested in anything on earth (outside my family) than God, Christianity, and people. That’s it. That is where my focus is. If I watch a movie it is to pass time until I can get back to this singular focus of God, Christianity, and people. Actually, how God, Christianity, and people are interact and relate to each other. I do art to break up this focus, I eat to manage stress from this focus, but I am solely focused on these things and how they orbit in and around each other.
Maintaining Focus on Faith
Most people with similar interests are forced to study them part-time because they have to make a living unless they become professional in the area and make their living talking about these things. But when they do that they must also make some unfortunate choices – compromises, justifications, turning blind eyes, and promoting the acceptable – as a means to remain gainfully employed.
I have been fortunate enough and abundantly blessed by God to not only survive in this world but retain a relentless focus on examining the truth – no matter what the cost. For me, there is no other way to live, but I also do it because I genuinely CARE about the faith once delivered to the Saints. I care so deeply about its condition and I care about those who want the truth in their lives – and in the lives of their families…and children.
Challenges Facing Christianity
Having this unadulterated worldview and unhindered access to the Word sans religious tradition, and watching what this faith has become in many places around the world, I am convinced that on an expedited pace, Christianity, as it has been known, proposed, and seen, is dying a certain death. Not the faith one received by the Saints, governed by the Spirit, but Christianity.
I want to go to the whiteboard to explain why – and why we need to do something now – in how we extend this priceless diamond to others and how it will be lived and expressed in the years to come. This is a pre-emptive strike against what men have done to bring the faith to its knees over the past couple thousand years.
Doctrine Revitalization
I submit to you that the following doctrines, which are supported in scripture – it just depends on how you choose to time these things – need to change in order for the faith to survive in the oncoming years and be effective in reaching thinking reasonable people who are seeking the truth.
- God through Jesus has had the complete victory is over all things. He is not still losing out to Satan, men or self-will. His victories are in no way failures at achieving what a Good God of love wants. There is no sacrifice on His part. There are no longer souls being lost to the dark side where he is like an army General screaming, dang! dang! dang! His victory was complete at the birth, life, death, resurrection, and return of His Son to His own, wrapping up everything requisite for Him to triumph. This brings us to the next point.
The Second Coming and Its Doctrinal Changes
We are not waiting for a Second Coming. Get it out of your heads. He came when He promised he would come, when the Apostles said he would come, and he came quickly like the Book of Revelation promised.
Are there cycles of humanity described in scripture that might still revolve among humanity? Could be? Are we headed toward a point in time where we will wipe ourselves out physically and if not physically, spiritually? Could be. But Jesus is NOT coming again. And Christians must come to understand this as a means to get over thinking that they have to warn evil doers of their eminent demise.
If or since Jesus has come, then we know, according to Revelation, that Satan and Hell are over. That is the third doctrinal change. They were cast into the Lake of Fire.
Does darkness remain, and evil, and all that Satan embodied? Of course. We don’t need a figurehead of evil to prove we are capable of godlessness. But the idea of Satan, the enemy, is complete. As is the idea of an afterlife punishment in hell, hades, sheol, the covered place, prison, etc.
Done.
Heaven as the Destination
What is the destination of all people since Christ has had the victory? Heaven.
And this is the next doctrinal clarification – Heaven is the Destination for all people. I am not just pulling this out of a hat. It is described in chapter 20 of Revelation where after the victory, and his return, and hell and Satan being cast, we enter fully into a New Eon or Age.
All the things of the former age are gone. And now everytime someone dies, they are raptured up, meet Jesus (if a believer) experience judgement, are given a resurrected body of Spirit, and enter the realm above that their body will allow them to be.
Those who receive a better resurrection will live inside the New Jerusalem, where God and Christ dwell. Those not covered in the blood will dwell outside those city walls – which are open day and night, by the way – and will not be in the presence of God and His Christ.
This is all biblical, folks. And is embraced an believed by many Christians around the world. Just not the loud Evangelicals.
Christians need to also understand that the New Testament was NOT written to them. There is not a single scripture that says: And these words are written to future generations. This does not mean that it does not contain the Word of God which is eternal but it does mean reading it takes discernment as to application.
A Personal Faith
We can say this because God says that in His New Testament He would write His laws on the hearts and minds of individuals, leaving all of us responsible for how we reacted to Him directly, not words written in ink to a people two thousand years ago.
This means that doctrinally Christians need to see that the faith is entirely subjective. How the individual reacts to God in them, how they choose to live, what they choose to do – THEY are responsible.
No more authority from the pulpit. No more priestly interventions. God and Man – a gift to all by Jesus Christ. No external laws or rules or rites or rituals. Understanding this important point will allow Christians to LOVE all of their neighbors because they personally choose to – not because they are told to . . . or more importantly, told NOT too.
So those are the main doctrinal changes that need to be made in the faith. These changes will allow for changes to occur in our collective and individual approach to the outside world.
This is category II – Change in Approaches to Others
Realizing that the Bible is a personal map and not a manual of musts, that Jesus is not coming back to destroy the earth, that Satan has been beaten, hell is overcome, and everyone is personally responsible for how they CHOOSE to live their lives, Christians are freed and liberated to live by Faith and Love.
Not by demands for conformity. Not in the judgment of others. Not in citing Bible references to a world that does not care.
Humbly. Lovingly. And placing all their faith in trust in God by Christ.
This means that Christians will TRULY live and act by the Fruit of the Spirit and NOTHING MORE!
They will let GOD work all things out in peoples lives.
Embracing Love Over Conflict
They will love EVERY single person, of every walk, every gender, every lifestyle, every choice, every evil, every political inclination. We will NOT war against ANYONE in the flesh. Especially each other. Especially our enemies. Ever.
And we will take personal responsibility for every relationship that is placed in our lap – to serve others, love others, accept others, privately secretly pray for others, and if and when led or ask, share the hope that is in us through Jesus Christ.
A Change in Application
This leads to the last Phase of Change that must occur by us because if it doesn’t it will occur without us, and that is a complete change in APPLICATION, meaning:
First, the eliminate all religious authority – it was never meant to be since God writes His laws on our hearts and minds. All pastors, priests and reverends stepping down from whatever place they have put themselves and becoming simply teachers of the word and encouragers for Christian love. This will mean the overall reduction of the Christian material footprint.
Deconstruction. Downsizing. Less of everything. No more collections. Tithes. If people want to give let them, if they don’t love them. Its all up to them anyway. No more big budgets, and mega churches would have to go because without focusing on money a mega-church can’t survive. The Body of Christ is made of individual sons and daughters, not buildings. Let it go. Let it burn.
In the reduction of this footprints there would hopefully be the death of American Evangelicalism and all of its ways and means. No more politics in Jesus name. No more anything in Jesus name except faith and love. The rest should be seen as MANipulation. Politics are individual and hard as this is for some to heart there is no party that God endorses. Far left and Alt right are as earthly and individual as choice of car color – but Jesus is faith and LOVE. And His Kingdom is not of this world.
Rejecting Earthly Trappings
This would mean that the church rids itself of this world – all of its trappings – with many of them being in the name of good. I do not believe in the Gospel of Social Salvation. I do not believe that Christians and Christian churches must feed the poor, rage against social evils, and attempt killing Hitler. Those are the ways of the flesh and are of Man. Can individuals, as Christians and not, engage in such things? Of course. But leave Jesus and the cross out of your organizational dreams and ideas on how this world ought to operate.
Hopefully, Christians will also choose to stop engaging in warfare over the creation, will stop building Bible-based amusement parks and put excess funds in worthy earthly causes rather than self-centered abusements. That we will allow science to flourish and assist us, that we will take the time to hear about theories of evolution and higher criticisms of the Bible. We have nothing to fear – we have Him as our Truth – all the rest should be open to discussion.
Who care if a gay person was born that way or not. People are going to get divorced. Men will look at porn and women will have abortions. And our governments will in the end fail us. There is one hope for all of us. All of us. He is the only hope for this world. He is NOT a religion. He is NOT a church. He is NOT a democrat nor a republican. He did not feed the poor every day of His ministry. He gave His life for all and reconciled the world to His father. Then rose from the grave to prove it.
We are all on this planet together that He saved. We WILL not agree on most things. But most reasonably minded people can agree that genuine selfless love will make this world a better place. And that was our Saviors essential command for those who are His – to love. And that love is defined as being
Kind
Gentle
Forgiving
Peaceable
Longsuffering
This love BEARS all things, it HOPE ALL THINGS, IT BELIEVES ALL THINGS, IT ENDURES ALL THINGS. I have personally failed so badly in this over the course of my life but I am committed to trying to listen to God through His Spirit and to follow in on our Lord and Saviors command… to love. Family. Friends. Neighbors. And especially enemies and those who differ with me in any and every way.
Unoriginal Walk
Join me in this extremely unoriginal walk. Turn from all religious appeals and humbly look up to God and love. Let’s turn the course of this beautiful ship called Christianity before it lands on the rocky shoals of obsolescence, and is torn apart by the powerful waves reason, rationality, and a generation of souls who will someday no longer put up with being MANipulated by religious rhetoric and tradition.
A Call for Love
His spirit is calling the hearts of all souls around the world. Come to me. Hear me. Love.
A Simple Yet Profound Message
Love. Love.
We’ll see you next week on HOTM!
