Re-birth

Mormonism

Show, Videos

March 7, 2006

Table Of Contents

The Journey to Rebirth
Rebirth
The Centrality of Faith in Jesus Christ
The Importance of Approach
Abandoning Religion

The Journey to Rebirth

Introduction to My Story

Tuesday March 7th 2006
8pm to 9pm

I. Welcome

Welcome to Heart of the Matter. I’m Shawn McCraney. Can we take just a minute and have a word of prayer together? We will open lines a bit later. If you would rather send in an email instead of calling, send it to Shawn@born-again-mormon.com

II. Preface to my story

In the summer of 1997 I found myself sitting in a car in a very sorry state. Born in the covenant. Raised in an LDS home. Admittedly was a bit of a hellion as a teen. Served a full-time mission to Harrisburg Pennsylvania. Used mission to really straighten myself out. Lived “with exactness,” as we were prone to say. Enjoyed the mission very much. Returned home found I had just kept myself preoccupied. Really the same man inside as the guy I was when I left. Took the next prescribed LDS step and married wonderful girl in the LA temple in 1984. Attended BYU / Started a family / very active in the Church. Inside was deeply troubled: why was I so prone to sin? Not talking about outward actions. Talking about inner condition. Outwardly I really walked a pretty walk. Inwardly I was full of lust, anger, pride, meanness, pettiness, piety, and a spirit to control others. In time made an E.Q. President, Seminary Teacher, put in a Bishopric, served on a Stake High Council for over three years. In the face of being so outwardly appealing but inwardly corrupt, I began, shortly after getting married and starting my second year at BYU, to search for some kind of absolute truth. If God was real, I wanted some real answers. And I meant it. Started with a study of LDS doctrine. Shifted to LDS history and what Mormons call anti-Mormon literature. Moved on to philosophy, eastern metaphysics, and after a seventeen long year search found myself believing in almost nothing. This was in the summer of 1997.

I was active in the ward and stake, the father of three beautiful children, and I was so dead and hollow spiritually I could hardly move anymore.

Rebirth

III. REBIRTH

That summer afternoon my wife asked me if I would drive to a nearby town and pick our daughters up from gymnastics practice. (Tell story – end with born-again)

The Core Message

IV. MESSAGE

If you are a member of the LDS Church I want to know one thing and one thing only: Have you been born-again through faith in Jesus Christ? Now listen to me very closely here: I don’t care where you go to church. I don’t care what position you hold in your ward or stake. I don’t care if you are wealthy, or productive, or happy, or sad. I don’t care if you believe the “Church is true.” I want to take a moment and ask yourself: Have I been born-again?

In the Gospel of John, chapter 1 verses 12 and 13 it reads:

12 But as many as received him, to them gave he power to become the sons of God, even to them that believe on his name:
13 Which were born, not of blood, nor of the will of the flesh, nor of the will of man, but of God.

Have you been born of God? Jesus Christ himself gave us an imperative, a must, when He said to Nicodemus, “You MUST be born-again.” I maintain that the LDS Church does not emphasize nor really teach the importance of being spiritually born-again through faith in Jesus Christ. Instead it focuses on the actions that are supposed to follow those who are reborn.

I maintain that the Church –starting with the people of this state – needs revival, needs rebirth, needs Jesus on the throne of their individual and collective lives. I call upon our mighty Father in Heaven to bring individual Latter-day Saints, if not the LDS Church as a whole, to a regenerative state of existence. To a personal, life-altering, spirit-breaking relationship with Jesus Christ.

This is not a casual event. It is not progressive, stretched out over a life-time so a person can never really know if they are new creatures. Births don’t take a life-time. They are single events. Maturing takes a life-time, but this is another matter.

Now, a lot of my Christian brothers and sisters insist that I talk with Mormons about “Mormonism” instead of Jesus Christ. But I suggest that there is often a great difference between “Mormonism and being a Mormon.” Most Latter-day Saints don’t accept everything LDS. Many don’t accept many things truly LDS.

I often ask my Christian friends and colleagues if they think all Mormons are going to hell? If the answer is yes, I just pray. But most of the time,

The Centrality of Faith in Jesus Christ

The answer is a reasonable no. So I will then ask them, “Well, what is it about those who will be saved?” And of course it is THEIR FAITH IN JESUS CHRIST, that will make the difference, right?”

Right.

Why spend any time discussing anything with Latter-day Saints or anyone else for that matter, than He who offers the only salvation!? We shouldn’t.

To the Catholics we should preach and teach Jesus. To the Jehovah’s Witness, we should share rebirth through Jesus. In the Christian Churches, it is Jesus, and to the members of the LDS church, it should be Jesus. It should be Jesus through how we live around them. It should be Jesus through how we love them always. It should be Jesus in how we treat and speak with them.

Now I was actually warned by a number of individuals that I must make it very clear on this show that Mormonism is a c-u-l-t. In my opinion c-u-l-t is a four letter word no loving Christian should ever use when describing Mormonism. Religion is religion. Period. There frankly all cultic in my opinion. I’m not saying the word isn’t academically correct in many ways. But using it in conversation with a people who do not know the Lord is ineffective and does more to build walls than tear them down.

The Importance of Approach

In light of my own life experiences as an active Latter-day Saint, my observations as a Christian over the past 8 years, and my absolute commitment to sharing Jesus Christ as the way, truth, and life to all people of this fallen world, I’d like to spend time on this show to present some concepts that may have not ever had consideration in the past.

First, methods matter. I’ve never understood the mentality that says, “I’m going to insult you and your beliefs like no other and then you will want to follow the God I know!” I don’t read anywhere in the Bible that Christians are supposed to be rude, or angry, or sarcastic to people of divergent faiths. In fact, I read an opposite attitude.

Three daughters story: Dressing

Establishing a Foundation in Jesus Christ

Second, it is an act of spiritual irresponsibility to pull the rug out from any religiously inclined people without having first – FIRST – given them a firm grip on the only thing they can cling to once they hit the floor – JESUS CHRIST. Do you get it?

Jesus must be what we preach – who He is, what He has done, how He has given us new life, and leads us today. Jesus Christ! We must teach Him to others by showing the LOVE and LIFE and JOY he has brought to us through new life!

The fruit of the spirit isn’t apologetics, attacking others, being critical, and mocking faith. The fruit of the spirit is

“love, joy, peace, long-suffering, kindness, goodness, faith, meekness, temperance” (Gal 5:22)

This state is chock full of people who have fallen from the LDS faith and into the hands of this world. They are destitute of a ship and an anchor. Teaching Jesus before attacking doctrine, history, and practice is a method that will help avoid such tragedy should someone decide to leave the faith.

This is loving. This is considerate. This, my friends, is Christian.

In this light, I welcome all peoples to our show tonight – Catholics, Mormons, unsaved Christian practitioners, gays and lesbians, murderers, Jehovah’s Witnesses, prisoners in jail, drug addicts, adulterers, liars, cheats, child abusers and the like. Because in the end, our show will always be about Jesus Christ, because He is the one who saves. Not religion! But the author and the finisher of our faith. He is the one who sets us free. He is the one who breaks the chains of our religious selves. He is the one who brings hope. Not a church. Not a Bishop or Prophet. And not a Pastor. Just Jesus.

Before we open the phone lines let me say this last thing.

We cannot possibly expect people who have come to know the Lord to immediately abandon all they have embraced in their religious lives and drop it all within any prescribed period of time. This may happen, but it doesn’t always happen. People have histories, family traditions, children, and marriages that are entwined and entangled in and around the LDS Church. Again it is irresponsible and unreasonable to expect anyone who comes to know Jesus Christ on an intimate and personal level to have the strength and fortitude to sever all

Abandoning Religion

Ties to what is often the only religion they have ever known. Things take time. And it is God who will lead and tell us where he wants us to go. When I think of abandoning a religion, I think of a leave covered tree. Martin Luther and his vestments as an Augustinian monk. So in patience, love, and understanding, let's OPEN THE PHONE LINES and ANSWER SOME EMAILS.