Sunday, February 28, 2010

Baptists and Mormons: A Transversable Divide?

It's been a while!

I've most recently returned from the North Carolina Charlotte Mission. Many experiences that I have had over the past two years have helped me to understand the beliefs and lifestyles of millions of other faiths. Hopefully, this blog can be a tool to help others to understand the differences between the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints and the rest of the world in terms of religion.

Ever since the creation of the church Baptists and other Protestant denominations have looked with an eye of suspicion upon the church. The perception is best illustrated by a woman that I had a conversation with:

As a missionary, I went to look for an investigator who had looked into the church some years before. A woman walked out of the apartment building. I began to talk to her and my companion in an almost tactful way turned the conversation to the church. Almost as sudden as turning a light on, she changed from cool and collected to shaking and spurting. She had said she had attended a Baptist seminary and "knew all about the Mormons" from the information presented to her there. I, being a young missionary (my first week in the field) wasn't by any means prepared or seasoned for this discussion. I expressed my love and belief in Christ and I did my best to answer with complete honesty the questions that she, and millions of Protestants ask about the church:

"Do you believe in Jesus Christ to be your personal Savior?"

Yes, ALL sincere and practicing Latter-day Saints believe Christ to be the only way of Salvation. The center of all worship and doctrine of the Gospel. Without Him all else falls. There would be no church, no prophet (since there would be nobody to speak to that prophet), no Book of Mormon (because there would be no subject for its pages), no temples, no missionaries. There would be utterly and completely nothing, there would be no earth.

"Do you believe that He was born of virgin birth?"

Yes, the ancient prophet Alma of the Book of Mormon testifies of this himself: "And behold, he shall be born of Mary, at Jerusalem which is the land of our forefathers, she being a virgin, a precious and chosen vessel, who shall be overshadowed and conceive by the power of the Holy Ghost, and bring forth a son, yea, even the Son of God." (Alma 7:10 pg. 224) We do not hold the view of Immaculate Conception (being that Mary, herself, was sinless at birth).

"Do you believe that He is the Son of God and is God?"

Yes. The Only Begotten of the Father who is full of grace and truth, everlasting to everlasting.

"Do you believe that He is resurrected?"

Yes. He is "the firstfruits of them that slept." His body and spirit were brought together as He only, being the Son of God, could bring them together. It is also our hope and faith in Him that we will also be resurrected.

"Do you believe the Bible to be the Word of God?"

Yes. As far as it has been TRANSLATED and INTERPRETED correctly. We believe that authority had in times past, and now in times present, had been given to God's servants here upon the Earth to receive revelation and write that revelation down. This is the source material of the Bible. Before there was ever a "Bible", God was speaking to man, His primary means of communication being revelation by the Spirit of God. In like fashion, the Bible and the Book of Mormon are essential to our instruction and learning in the Gospel of Jesus Christ. Revelation that is received personally (that is also linear to the writings of these and other canonical books) and from Prophets and Apostles modern are also principle in drawing closer to God.

These being but a few of the general questions that she had, at the end of the conversation she was shaking her head saying, "I guess we don't have that much different between the two of us." That fact is true. There are many similarities between the religions of Protestants and Mormons. The most important one is the binding belief in the Atonement of the Savior Jesus Christ. He is the Savior and Redeemer of all mankind and is my personal Savior. I have accepted Him, as all Latter-day Saints do by following after Him and His example. I know that we are responsible for walking the path that He walks and as He has promised we shall be lead to the courts of our Father on high. In that day we shall be made pure through his blood and mercy and be made white and whole through the cleansing Atonement.