Lesson 6 Witnessing To Mormons Series

Witnessing to Mormons

Lesson 6

Jeff Bixby

August 29th, 2001

Scripture: Matthew 28:18-20 "And Jesus came and spake unto them, saying, All power is given unto me in heaven and in earth. Go ye therefore, and teach all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost: Teaching them to observe whatsoever I have commanded you: and, lo, I am with you always, even untot he end of the world. Amen."

Witnessing to mormons is not an easy task. If you do not know the doctrine or termonolgy they use, you will not make a dent. Typically Mormons will not accept any other version of the Bible except the King James version. If you do not have any mormon scriptures, it makes no difference in as far as witnessing to the mormons. Some people go out and by them, if you plan on making a ministry out of witnessing to mormons, this might be a good idea. But now with the internet and most public libraries have mormon scriptures you could almost just photocopy them. Even if the mormon does not accept Christ as his or her saviour, you can get them thinking about the faith they have in the church. Mormons are instructed not to read anything that the church does not tell them to! So, they wont go out and by a book by a non-mormon author on mormonism. But you could buy one and leave it out in the open for them to look through. This lesson will give you some good ideas and foundations for witnessing to mormons.

Get the questions rolling

Leaving a book out that you bought by some christian author on mormonism is a great tool. Very often I have heard of people doing this, and it gets the mormon to ask questions. This is important becuase, the first place a mormon will go is to their Bishop. The Bishop will always give them the run around, and say something like "Satan is putting doubt in your mind." and tell them to go read the scriptures. The mormon will eventually come to you after his/her church will fail to answer a simple question. EXAMPLE: I posed a question to the RLDS(Family of God) LDS and several other mormon splinter groups, the question I asked was- In the Bible(Micah 5:2) it says that Jesus will be born in Bethlehem, but the Book of Mormon(Alma 7:10) it says that Jesus will be born in Jerusalem, how and why is this? The answer I got from everyone was the same old dodge the issue. Here is the answer I got from all the groups; The LDS church never wrote back, The RLDS church said this: "Your question poses a very important subject, we are glad to see that you are reading the Book of Mormon." then the letter went on about how I should contact a church etc. and never answered the question as to why. Another group I contacted was called the Restoration Church of Jesus Christ and they said this: "Since those two cities are so close together, it most definatley is our opionion that they mean the same thing." I could not imagine what a mormon would get answered, or not answered. But this example is most common in mormonism. I was very frustrated at not getting an answer but when I did it was so silly. The two cities are not the same thing, they are two totally different cities. This is where you want the mormon to be at. They will see that you will try and locate an answer for them out of kindness and caring. Another way to get them to ask questions is to bring up Contraditions in Mormonism doctrine in lesson 2. Say: "Well I was reading ____ and noticed that it says ____ here but then ____ says this" assure them that you are not attacking them in any way. Mormons get very defensive about doctrine. Continue on asking "why? How could this be? I dont understand. Could you find out for me." Then get into the Contradictions in the Bible. "Yes, but this Bible verse here says ____."

Using the Book of Mormon and Mormon Scripture

As you may know mormonism constantly contradicts itself. Well so does it’s scripture. A good way to get a mormon to ask more questions and seek out truth, is to identify these in their own scripture. They will certainly use the Bible to do this to you, make sure you go over Lessons 2 and 3 several times to have the foundation you will need. The Doctrine and Covenants and the Book of Mormon, do not mix well at all as you already know from lesson 2. A good way to point these out, if you don’t own a copy of the Book of Mormon is to use the mormon’s copies. This way you wont come off like you are attacking the person. Have them read it to you and say "Now how does that differ from ___". Have them explain how one scripture can say this, then another say something opposite. Always remember the terms in lesson 1. These are essential. Constantly ask what term they are using, for example: If the mormon asks, "Do you believe in the Holy Ghost?" you ask, "The Holy Ghost of mormonsim or the Holy Ghost of the Bible?" you should always ask this, becuase you can explain that the termonlogy is different for you than them. Keep them on track as far as your questions. Do not let them lead you! Tell them that is not the issue at this point and that you were talking about ___ before. Often doing this can be tiresome, especially if the mormon will not let you ask your questions. Do not allow the mormon to stray off the point. If you are getting no where, politely ask them to come back another day. Let them know that you tried to ask a simple question etc. Even though you may have had to stop the mormon will go home and ponder your question and dilegently search his scripture.