Love and Reconciliation in Christianity

Live from the Mecca of Mormonism, SALT LAKE CITY, UTAH, This is Heart of the Matter, where we try and get all people to walk toward the love of Jesus Christ. And I am Shawn McCraney, your host.

Background and Introduction

HOTM REDUX Show 2 Hear me out – Part II August 13th 2019

TITLE: Hear Me Out – Part II

Show Description

Revolution Now! Call to New Armaments! Love.

KEY WORDS: Truth,Mormonism,Hell,Freedom,Liberty Christ,Emancipation,Revolution of Light,Victory,LOVE,Outreach,Christian outreach,Mormons are Christians, Love Mormons,Love the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints,Revolution Now!? , A call to new arms

Let’s begin with a prayer.

Again, for the rest of the month of August, I am going to openly talk with you all as a preface to our embarking on taking “another go” at Mormonism. I am asking you to “hear me out.” This is Part II.

We invite you to call in to our live show tonight – the number is on the screen – as your insights and comments and questions (no matter what your position) will add more color and flavor to everyone’s perspective.

Last week I introduced to you the historical fact of my life that I possessed kind feelings toward people as a child, those were eradicated over time by the influences of culture in my life, and by the time I traveled to Sri Lanka I was confronted with a personal conflict which was partially resolved while traveling through a third world country in limousine listening to the song by Elvis Costello, “What’s So Funny About Peace Love and Understanding.”

Isn’t it highly paradoxical that our artists and poets promote such but our institutional religions, which ought to promote it, are some of the biggest purveyors of war, hate and bigotry?

Personal Beliefs and Scriptural Stance

Whether you agree with me or not, I personally take the following stances today as a serious student of scripture:

1. I believe that God has had the victory over sin and death by and through His Son on behalf of the whole world. I see God as victorious and not beaten by devils, angels or human beings and their cultures.

2. And as a result of His victory through His Son, the world – this world – has been reconciled completely to the living God as sin and death has been eradicated by the finished work of His Son. The punishment has been meted out, the price paid – some 2000 years ago on Him. Now there is the age of Peace, Love and Understanding.

3. That in having come back (as He promised he would) in 70 AD and taken His Church-Bride which the gates of hell did NOT prevail against, I submit that all human beings of every walk and clime are being invited by God to let Him writes His laws upon their hearts and minds. And what are His Laws – Love. Love.

I submit that the faith is subjectively lived and understood today as a result of this relationship God has with individuals and that objective material religion (and all of its enforcements, opinions, dogmas, cultures of warfare and institutionalized demands) were done away with once and for all by God through His Son – nearly 2000 years ago. And again, the Bible presents this clearly, not me – it was authored by Him.

Finally, I submit that the New Heaven and New Earth were established at His victory over all things, that the New Jerusalem, which is above, is spiritual – and genuine believers and seekers of God are members of that Kingdom here – and there – when they die. Those who do not care about God here will not care about God there – and God blesses them, loves them, and grants them this choice with their lives.

All of this means that because of Christ every person is free to live this life “here and now” as they choose to live it – FREE to live for Him and His ways and FREE to live for themselves and their own – He has made it this way, and there is no need to judge anyone for their choices.

The implications of all of all of this are so far-reaching, so absolutely beautiful and biblical, that if you are interested in them we have a number of FREE downloadable books for the taking at www.hotm.faith

The Economy of God and Human Tendencies

Have refused to see this economy of God given to man in scripture and have instead tried – insisted – on imposing more material objective religion on each other – from the start. It is a fascinating fact about us human beings that because we so earnestly seek "security and certainty," most of us glom onto systems, cultures, and authorities and make them our go-to’s instead of listening to the Spirit of God around us moving us to peace, love, and understanding.

Have you ever gotten wrapped up in something so deeply that you actually forget that there is an enormous world out there that thrives under a completely separate set of laws, rules, and principles? That happened to me when I took my Southern California surroundings and assumed the whole world thought and lived – like ME!

I mean a person can become ensconced in the drama of their own neighborhoods, the culture of their chosen sport or hobby, or the doctrine of their respective church – and actually allow themselves to believe that God endorses only them and nothing else matters! Has that ever happened to you? Where you allow yourself to become so myopic due to what is happening in your little world that you cannot see beyond your own pet lifestyle, opinions, and beliefs?

If you have ever really immersed yourself in a religion, it is really easy to slip into the mode and culture of that religion and all that its demands and in the comfort of that certitude become blind to the fact that there are a billion other viable ways to live and think and believe out there and many of them are closer to God than the one you have embraced!

Myopic Beliefs and Their Effects

Groups and religions depend on this insulated mindset from their members – in fact, as we will see, they promote it – because it makes them seem superior to the other options that compete with them – and while the institutions thrive, the people suffer. Let me illustrate the value of stepping back and trying to see the forest outside of being in the trees of respective religious certitude.

(GO TO BOARD HERE)

The Aftermath of Jerusalem's Destruction

After God’s utter destruction of Jerusalem, its temple, its people, its genealogies, its priesthood, and everything that had to do with material objective religion, and after God began to write His laws on the Hearts of Individuals who wanted and sought Him, men stepped in and started to insert themselves into the business of the Spirit. What happened?

WESTERN ROMAN CATHOLICISM
(founded Creeds, Traditions of Man, Orders, re-established Priesthoods!)

1530 19th Century
PROTESTANT RESTORATIONIST
REFORMATION MOVEMENT
(No Creeds! The Bible (Spirit, Bible, Inspiration of Man)
The SOLA’S!)

Various Doctrinal Expressions and Tensions

ALEXANDER CAMBELL,STONE
40,000 expressions today Joseph Smith MORMONISM all having subtle Tug of Wars with Ellen G White and S.D.A. others! About God, Bible, Jesus, Charles Taze Russel and J.W. Salvation, Heaven, Hell! Mary Baker Eddie and C.S. TUG of WARFARE!

Historical Context of Eastern Orthodoxy

EASTERN ORTHODOXY (1054) The Great Schism (Believe that they had the correct doctrine, practice, Traditions and views)

God's Promise of an Unshakable Kingdom

OKAY. Now, go back to the Tanakh, to Jesus, to the Apostles, and to what all of them said about “the End of the World – that world of materially expressed, objectively-demanded religion, that was symbolically represented by the Nation of Israel and ALLL of the material approaches that they had to God including temples, genealogy, rites, sacrifices, tithes, Jerusalem, priesthood.

And go back to what GOD said He would do to EVERYTHING after the finished work of His Son was complete. God said he would shake it all down until the ONLY thing that could and would remain would be unshakable. Did you know that God said this? And this would begin the age of His eternal Kingdom where He would write His laws on the hearts and minds of INDIVIDUALS! Individuals! Not on priestly authorities. Not in books of religion. On individuals hearts and minds!!! That makes the faith entirely subjective, folks! Emancipating all people from the warfare, and hate, and bias of religious mindsets!

He would establish a New Heaven and a New Earth (not like a bunch of stuff reflecting the former earth and religion) but a New One – where He would put the Eternal Spiritual Kingdom in the hands of His Spirit which could and should have eliminated all religious warfare, hate, killing and materialism! Opening the way for PEACE, LOVE and UNDERSTANDING!

What we have up here (on the board) is not love. It’s not conducive to love and freedom of individuals. It’s the product of human beings trying to do the work of the Spirit through material means, through control, through power – which is why THEY ironically promote the antithesis to Christian love and individuals promote Christ’s love so much better.

See, His love, by and through the Spirit, TRANSCENDS all of this malarkey through those who possess it, and it opens those who are TRULY HIS to actual true Peace, Love and Understanding – of all people.

Christian Love and Call to Action

Now, whether you agree with me on these things or not, one thing you might agree with me on is the fact that Jesus taught His disciples to love – to love our enemies and those who hate us and use us. To love.

And as we said last week, true Christians – irrespective of their religious affinities (like those listed on the Board) – will, do, love . . . WITH A LOVE that is described in scripture as “gentle, patient, longsuffering, peaceable, self-effacingly, humbly, with self-control and the like.”

In His name I am calling – and have been calling – on all Christians to set aside all the “man-made religiousities” and to join the Christian Revolution of love – again, of all people, all the time and above all other things that tend to get in the way of this command. To turn to kindness, gentleness, longsuffering, selflessness, humility, and concern for the welfare of all souls.

And in our specific focus, let’s now examine the “Christian” approach that has been taken toward our LDS brothers and sisters. In my estimation, based on what we see.

Understanding the Inclusions of Jesus in Mormon Belief

Around us, lovers of Jesus have FAILED in many respects to EFFECTIVELY reach into the Mormon empire – again as evidenced by how they have grown in power and strength since their founding in 1830.

For clarity, let's first admit that when it comes to “organized religion and people groups as a whole” there are those that “exclude Jesus” (whom we are to love anyway) and there are those who include Him (to some extent or another) as Lord and Savior. Let’s go to the board again. ALL of the groups listed here INCLUDE some sort of a belief and Jesus in their doctrine and practice.

Groups Including Jesus

• JESUS the Son of God as Lord, Savior, King.
• Catholicism and all other Orthodoxies
• Protestantism writ large
• Mormonism
• Jehovah’s Witness
• Seventh Day Adventists
• Christian Scientists

Talking about the Mormons let’s be fair – the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints does see Jesus as the Son of God, does admit that He paid for Sin, does believe he resurrected from the grave and does seek for their members to do His works to some extent or another.

Did you notice that in the new opener and closer to the show that Cassidy included art from all of these expressions of faith listed on the board? That there are exclusively Mormon depictions of Jesus included in it? She did that to show that JESUS is JESUS – even when the ontological and even the soteriological facts of him get messed up. He’s a victorious Jesus. Our inability to grasp him perfectly does not thwart His perfect love.

Analyzing Mormonism's Flaws and Parallels

Now, without question, Mormonism is “man-fluenced” on the details and in their practices and doctrines – and we will get to this as these MANFLUENCES do hinder many of their members from truly understanding of Him as Lord and Savior, but in the least, they include and speak of and teach of Jesus of Nazareth as the Son of God sent to save the world and strive to help people live in harmony with His love.

Do they also have a sordid history? Do they have questionable leadership in that history? Do they have an amalgamation of strange doctrines and practices? Do they also put people in extreme religious bondage? They do. Yes Yes Yes. And these things we will discuss and bring out gently with them. But NEVERTHELESS, at least they include Jesus.

Of course some will say:

“Yeah, but they also had a founder who was sexually involved with young girls and took other men’s wives in God’s name?”

True. But most organized religions were founded or established in some way by men of flesh who had personal moral failures. Look at Rasputin and Russian Orthodoxy? And how many Catholics priests over the ages have done disturbed things to others? I mean men suck! That’s why God’s system doesn’t include them in authority.

“Yeah, but Brigham Young taught the Adam God doctrine, and Blood Atonement, and was a racist.”

The doctrinal positions in Orthodoxy over the years have been just as wild and wasn’t Martin Luther Himself an anti-semite? He was! Frothing!

Yeah, but Brigham Young had people put to death – like the Fancher party at Mountain Meadows?

And so did Calvin, and what about the Inquisitions?

“Yeah, but Mormons believe in a Mother in Heaven”

Doesn’t all of Orthodoxy pray to Mary and nearly worship her with extreme non-biblical adorations, incense and chants?

“Yeah but Mormonism is a legalistic cult that puts their members in bondage?”

Don’t most of the other organized religions do the same to some extent or another? Don’t they all demand money, have materialistic objectives, play politics, and demand allegiance, memberships, rituals, obedience and the like?

Comparative Viewpoints on Religious Practices

Look – all material organized Objectivfied institutional religion share in some of the same guilt the Mormon church bears – and yet ALL of them are so ardent and zealous in their views that they THINK that they have the right to ATTACK the LDS people online and on the streets! Are the beams so clearly out of everyone’s eyes that they are in a position to protest and attack the LDS as a means to get try and remove the splinters they have in their own?

Where’s the peace, the love, and the empathy? The longsuffering? The patience? And this is really important – Evangelicals have been attacking Mormon people as evil, non-Christian and children of the Devil since its inception which has only resulted in the LDS church GROWING in power, wealth and membership. Sure, in recent years the LDS church has been hit – but

Religious Perspectives on Salvation

Most of that is the result of information on the internet AND their own inept response to a rapidly changing world!

Something has to change – and I want to propose that change to you all tonight. But before I do, allow me to present a few more observations. Look at the list on the board again.

JESUS as Lord and Savior, King and Son of God.

Catholicism and other Orthodoxies Protestantism writ large Mormonism Jehovah’s Witness Seventh Day Adventists Christian Scientists

Focus on Religious Differences

Now consider the amount of focus and attention that is placed on attacking the Mormons, the JW’s, and the SDA. And what is the general motive for other religions attacking the LDS? Many of us were fooled by the lies the church fed us and we attack them because we are angry and want to warn others.

But from the “never-LDS Protestant side,” MOST of the people who spend an inordinate amount of time and attention on the Mormons do so because they are convinced that the Mormons are going to hell! And they hit the streets at LDS events and conferences to apparently warn them.

First of all, whoever goes to hell (if it even was still a factor but it's not) but whomever goes to hell is not the business of individuals – it’s God's. And if there was EVER a group that it could be debated on whether they were going to hell or not, it would be the Mormons. I mean, at least they include Jesus in their doctrines of salvation, his perfect life and resurrection AND try to do His works, right?

Hear me out now as a means to create change. The Mormon church says that they have around 15 million members and of those 30 percent are active. So, let’s just take the active and assume that the figure of 4.5 million people on earth are active Mormons and that figure is accurate.

Comparing Views on Different Faiths

Protestant Evangelicals have deemed them a major group of souls headed to hell and therefore they need to be reached (mostly through very ineffective measures). Got that?

Now, let’s consider the people-groups in the world that most of the institutions on the board are pretty certain are all undoubtedly going to hell.

Muslims – all going to hell according to the Christian mindset – there are 1.8 BILLION Muslims in the world!! BILLION!!!!! That is 400 times more souls than the Mormons!

Hindu’s – all going to hell because “there is NO Jesus at all in their world,” say the Catholics, the Protestants, and the Restorationists – there are 2.2 BILLION Hindus in the world right now. 2.2 BILLION!!! That’s almost 500 times more Hindu’s than there are active Mormons!

Buddhists – 535 Million – No-Jesus – surely going to hell. One hundred times more of them than Mormons.

Atheists – 500 million positive Atheists in the world – according to street preachers and the like all are certainly going to hell. There are 100 times more Atheists in the world – and that number is growing – than Mormons.

LGBTQ? Study-estimates suggest around 11 million in the US alone. More than double the LDS. And while they get their fair share of Christian hate, the LDS have gotten more.

If we take these five groups, who in the minds of most of the organizations on the board are ALL going to a literal eternal burning hell, we have a total of 5 BILLION 46 MILLION people on earth right now who are definitively going to hell according to the doctrines of the four main groups on the board!

Active Mormons represent a little over ¼ of 1% of this total number – and THEY include Jesus in their doctrine.

FUT the WUCK have we bitten into here?

Motivations Behind Religious Aggression

Are the other institutions jealous of the Mormons and their success and wealth? Are they fearful that they will beat them at the game of religion? Do they hate their smugness and attitudes of holiness or are we just witnessing the fact that religious empires must rip apart other empires as a means to keep their members from being drafted away to another?

This stuff is NOT what Jesus came to do. Not. We need to change things folks. YOU need to do it from your armchairs, on your devices, in your families, and in response to religious war, hate, and bigotry.

Now, granted, the LDS have historically set themselves up to be attacked – looking at it from a carnal perspective. I mean, their founder DID say God told Him all the sects of Christianity were an abomination.

Christian Approach to LDS Relationships

to Him.

And He did institute Polygamy as a God-ordained practice. And they did ban black people from their priesthood and are a pretty haughty group coming out of the gates even to this day with all their “only True Church” BS. Yes, most of their defenders are slippery and are not known for being authentic with information.

But here’s the gig, folks – Christians, of all people, ought to be the ones who with patience and empathy and longsuffering deal with our LDS brothers and sisters rather than attacking them. All of this, including my own culpability in attacking some of them, has opened my eyes to see the need for a radical change I want to submit to you. But before I do let me make something clear – there is nothing wrong with going after institutions – none of them can justify their material footprint on this earth through a contextual reading of the Bible. None of them – and few are as diabolical as the LDS church.

Distinguishing Institutions from Individuals

But we must distinguish the institution FROM the people. The people are not one bit different, in the end, than any people group. And many of them do want to please God!

So, understand this. Additionally, understand – because I don’t like subterfuge or secret strategies – this proposed change is a means to help FREE LDS people from bondage WHILE helping to destroy the institution that holds them bound. What we have done in the past has not done this.

So, first, even if people are certain of this in their own mind, I first suggest that we completely get rid of the notion that we are trying to save LDS people from going to hell. That is a VERY bad approach for a number of reasons, including that

1. Nobody has the right to say that about anyone, let alone the Mormons. And secondly
2. To approach someone involved in a system that they do not see as faulty and tell them that they are going to hell is wholly ineffective and offensive and therefore antithetical to the objective.

Liberation from Religious Bondage

So if we are NOT trying to save LDS people from hell, what is the Objective in reaching out to them? To liberate them from religious bondage, of course. To emancipate them from as many ideologies that have captured them and held them in religious clutches that were never meant to be!

I mean this is our goal with everyone, isn’t it – that because we love them, because we want all people to experience the liberty and freedom and life the way God has gifted it all souls. We don’t take a heroin addict and lift their head off the street and tell them they are evil, possessed of the devil and going to hell – not unless we’re insane! We sit in the gutter with them, and understanding their plight, invite them INTO our lives, and help them see that there IS another way, a way of freedom, a way to live without chains.

And what sets people free? Jesus does. The truth does. How is the truth best served? With love. In love. And by the characteristics of LOVE – with PATIENCE, LONGSUFFERING, KINDNESS, GENTLENESS, MEEKNESS, JOY, and UNCONDITIONALITY messages of truth have the potential for sinking in!

Embracing Our LDS Family

So my point is, radical as it sounds to some ears, is “let’s receive them to free them!” First receive them, AS OUR CHRISTIAN BROTHERS AND SISTERS, as a means to free them FROM religion! We have all gone about it all in the reverse. Myself included. We have bought into the “us verses them” divisions (fed to us by our religious traditions as a means to control us) and this has only enabled Mormonism to GROW while limiting our chances of reaching individual members we know and love.

But if we start to include people in our circle of influences, and love them as they are, and take the time to patiently ILLUSTRATE how and what it looks like to be of the Spirit and to freely love all – THAT is a universal language that most people can hear without too much umbrage or resistance.

How will this work? Here’s the part that will be hard for some of you – it begins with us openly admitting Mormons in

Reaching Through Love

To the ranks of Christianity.

To drop the barriers that says – they’re not Christian. We can change this if we really love them AND want to reach individuals AND see their empire fall. Imagine the scene – there are five Mormons fellowshipping with fifteen Christians and twenty Catholics at a picnic and the Mormons (because they are trained to do this) try to pass off the idea that Joseph Smith was a prophet who translated a book by staring into a hat at a rock!

The Catholics and the Christians could mock them and attack them OR they could simply say, “that’s interesting.” And then lovingly share how Jesus is Lord of their lives – as fellow Christians. There is no better way on earth to reach trapped souls than to bring them into our lives, allowing them to join fellowship as Christians, without any fanfare, and in that environment introduce them to the truth in love. This will be the vehicle to bring the whole empire down to its knees. I frankly don’t think the LDS leadership would welcome this love into the lives of their people. I personally think they LOVE the “us verses them mentality” that other Christ-based churches have helped them maintain because it insulates their members into that myopic mindset we talked about at the start of the show.

Love Over Doctrine

Imagine what could be accomplished in the lives of LDS people who are first received AS viable Christians into the lives and homes of sold out Christians who then refrain from attacking them for their peculiar beliefs but instead just evidenced true, unconditional, endless agape love? Long beat.

Last week I shared a story about thousands of Sri Lankans at an airport reaching and crying for help. Our approach to the LDS since 1820 has pretty much been akin to my walking over to the fence of those trapped souls and tell them that they are not Christian, that they are going to hell, and that I would not see them as my equal nor associate with them or receive them until they changed their ways. But suppose we walk over to the fence and we call those people our brothers and our sisters. And we welcome them into our churches, our homes and our lives. Suppose we don’t ever preach Jesus at them out of the gate but only illustrate love to them and if they ask us questions we try to focus on just loving them in Jesus name?

The three people who influenced me most before I was convinced that Christianity was the approach I would follow NEVER addressed the tenets of Mormonism with me, they knew I knew Mormonism. But they knew Jesus, and they knew love, and they all shared both love and Jesus with me gently and whenever they could. That is what brings the individual around. And this is what will bring the empire of Mormonism down.

(beat)

The State of Mormonism

We are watching the world beat Mormonism to a pulp – the human rights failures of the institution are doing more to drive its members out than any doctrinal debate or revelation of their history. But the result of this is we are losing thousands of these people to atheism and the ways of the world. We can win them with a new, a better, approach – in His name. Join me. Let’s turn the tide. In love lets remind our zealous religious brothers and sisters that they are doing more damage than good with the old-school approach to our LDS friends.

And let’s open up the Phone Lines. 801 590-8413

While we are waiting and clearing any possible calls, I want to remind you that we have FOUR really important guests starting in September. Ready for this?

September 3 and 10th Angela Kelly
September 17th, 24th and October 1st
Ethan Krok
October 8th, 15th, 22 and 29th – Denver Snuffer
And November 5th, 12th and 19th Street Preacher Paul Gee.

So so much to talk about, hear and learn.

CALLS?

801 590-8413

801 590-8423

PLEASE turn your computers down!

NO CALLS????

We will see you next week, here on HOTM.