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.
Prayer and Bible reading
In order to lead anyone, mormon or not, to Christ, prayer is the key factor. Praying about someones salvation will empower you through God’s Holy Spirit. Ask God to use you and empower you. Without prayer, you will fail, it’s as simple as that. Pray with your Pastor if he/she is available. Learn more of God’s word. God will bless you for studying his word. There are several places to enroll in simple easy Bible studies. Give them a testimony of what being saved has done for you. They will surely give your their testimony.
Resources for mormons
If you get to a point that the mormon wants to leave mormonism, you should give them resources to help them. Mormons risk everything when they leave, in some cases even family. There are several websites and ministries available for mormons who wish to leave. In the same manner you should leave out phamplets or some other source of information on the errors of the mormon doctrine. Utah Lighthouse Ministries is great source for mormons and non-mormons alike. Go down to your local library on the internet and print off these resources.
What about the Book of Mormon?
It has been asked of me several times, about what to do if a mormon accepts Jesus as personal saviour, but keeps hold of the Book of Mormon. In other words, the mormon still believes that the Book of Mormon is scripture. I tell them that the book does not stand up to the Bible. The Book of Mormon can be used to witness to mormons, it does have Christian elements within it, but that does not make it Holy Scripture, remember it was written by a man who use to practice forms of the occult, and continued to do so up until his murder. Just becuase a book mentions Jesus or even has some form of Christian theology does not make the book scripture. I have read the Book of Mormon, several version of it as a matter of fact, and it as a whole does not come close to teaching a Chrisitan doctrine. There have been numerous changes to the Book of Mormon both grammatically and in chapter and verse. The changes were made to satisfy the current church doctrine, both the LDS and RLDS church’s have done this. The 1840 edition will be different than the current LDS version and so on and so forth. With time and investiagation on the mormons part they will eventually drop the book.
Food for thought: I was raised in the Bahai faith, I accepted Jesus in high school at a youth service. I tried to read both the Bible and the Bahai scriptures along with praying. At one point I thought that I could still accept some of the scripture of the Bahai faith. I began to read more of the Bible and prayed for understanding of God’s word. The end result was I had to choose; Jesus Christ or the Bahai faith. Once I came to this decision, I was to the point that I didn’t even have to decide. I was baptized a few months later!
