Tagged: Mormons
Good reasons to trust the scriptures
This column appeared Aug. 16, 2012 in The Pathway, the official news service of the Missouri Baptist Convention.
Muslims claim The Qur’an is the perfect revelation of Allah, delivered by the angel Gabriel to the prophet Muhammad. It corrects corrupted Jewish and Christian scriptures and supersedes all other religious writings.
Mormons profess belief in four standard works: The Book of Mormon, Doctrine and Covenants, Pearl of Great Price, and the Bible. The Book of Mormon is especially important, recording Jesus’ appearance in America to the descendants of a Jewish prophet; it is, in Mormon teaching, “Another Testament of Jesus Christ.”
Adherents to the Church of Scientology study Dianetics, a book by one-time science fiction writer L. Ron Hubbard, who claimed that people go through multiple rebirths and must shed negative baggage from past lives in order to become “operating thetans.”
Then, of course, there’s the Bible, which Christians call the Word of God.
Add to these the sacred writings of other belief systems – from Buddhism to Baha’ism – and the claims to truth are astounding in their number and variety.
But which of these books is really true? Is it possible that all of them contain some truth – or that all of them are true for the people who choose to believe them? Is it narrow-minded, arrogant, or culturally insensitive to say that any of these writings is false? Why do Christians insist that the Bible is the Word of God? Can’t we all just get along?
Inerrant, inspired, authoritative
Most Christians believe in the veracity of scripture. That is, we trust the Bible to be the inerrant, inspired Word of God and the authoritative source of all we believe and practice.
By inerrant, we mean the original autographs are without error because God, as its Author, does not lie or make mistakes. By inspired, we mean the Bible is “God breathed.” And by authoritative, we mean the Bible is God’s written revelation to us and therefore must guide our thoughts, words and deeds.
But many people – including some professing Christians – do not share such a high view of scripture. They raise serious objections to the church’s claims about the Bible’s truthfulness and reliability. For example, some critics charge:
- “No one really knows what the Bible says because we don’t have the original manuscripts.”
- “It’s silly to assume that one book contains all of God’s truth and that other great writings, from the Vedas to The Book of Mormon, do not come from God.”
- “The Bible is full of contradictions.”
Responding to these objections is a daunting task – in part because critics raise some valid points. For example, it’s true that we do not have the “autographs,” or original manuscripts, penned by the Bible’s human authors.
However, the Bible soars above other ancient documents in many convincing ways, giving us good reasons to trust the scriptures.
Reason 1: The documents
While the autographs, or original manuscripts, of the Bible have not survived the ravages of time, no other book from the ancient world has more, earlier, or more accurately copied manuscripts than the Bible.
For example, we have 25,000 – 30,000 handwritten copies of some or all of the New Testament, 5,700 of them in Greek. This is astounding when you consider that the average Greek author has fewer than 20 copies of his works – and no originals – still in existence.
Even if there were no copies of these biblical texts, we could reconstruct the entire New Testaments from the writings of the ancient church fathers, who quoted from the New Testament more than one million times.
In addition, the existing Bible manuscripts are relatively older than other ancient documents, dating closer to the time of the originals, thus lending credence to their reliability.
Finally, while these documents vary somewhat as they have been copied over the years, nearly all of the variants are minor, and none of them challenges a single doctrine of the Christian faith.
Reason 2: The scribes
The 40 men who penned the scriptures over a period of 1,500 years insisted that their message came from God. Many were persecuted, or even martyred, for their faith. The authors of the Bible claimed to be under the direction of the Holy Spirit (2 Sam. 23:2; 2 Peter 1:20-21).
The prophets ascribed their message to God. Phrases such as “Thus saith the Lord,” “God said,” and “the Word of the Lord came to me” are found hundreds of times in the Bible. The apostle Paul declared that “All Scripture is inspired by God” (2 Tim. 3:16). Peter referred to the writings of Paul as “scriptures” (2 Peter 3:16).
Even non-Christian ancient writings attest to the truthfulness of the eyewitness accounts of Christ. For example, the Jewish historian Josephus, in his Jewish Antiquities, corroborates the claims of the New Testament writers that Jesus was more than a man; He was the Messiah, and rose from the dead on the third day.
Next: Reasons 3-7 to trust the scriptures.
The Great Impostor
This article appeared June 20 in The Pathway of the Missouri Baptist Convention.
He was known as “The Great Impostor” and inspired a 1961 film by the same name.
Ferdinand Waldo Demara began his nefarious career during World War II by borrowing an Army buddy’s name, going AWOL and faking his suicide. A string of pseudo careers followed in which Demara portrayed a sheriff’s deputy, a doctor of applied psychology, and a child-care expert.
He was best known for masquerading as a surgeon aboard a Canadian Navy destroyer during the Korean War, successfully completing a string of operations. His final gig: a Baptist minister.
Demara’s life is a fascinating but sad story of one man’s quest for respectability. His success as an impostor also exposes the soft underbelly of a society whose people are easily duped by one who talks smoothly and claims to serve the greater good.
For Christians, Demara’s story is a warning to be on guard against those who disguise themselves as “servants of righteousness” (2 Cor. 11:15). But how can we know a religious impostor when we see one? The apostle Paul gives us three clear markers in 2 Cor. 11:4. False teachers proclaim “another Jesus … a different spirit … a different gospel.”
To illustrate, let’s look briefly at three belief systems: Islam, Mormonism, and the Watchtower (Jehovah’s Witnesses) – each of which teaches unbiblical doctrines concerning Jesus, the Holy Spirit and the gospel.
Islam
Jesus. Muslims say Jesus was one of God’s greatest prophets but inferior to Muhammad. The Koran denies that Jesus is the Son of God, and any Muslim who believes in the deity of Jesus has committed shirk – a sin that will damn that person to hell. Muslims do not believe Jesus died on the cross but was called to heaven by Allah before His death and was perhaps replaced by Judas Iscariot or someone else who looked like Jesus.
Holy Spirit. Islam denies the deity of the Holy Spirit, whom the Koran describes as “the angel which brought revelation.” The Koran also calls the Holy Spirit “Gabriel” (2:97).
The gospel. Islam teaches that Jesus was neither crucified for our sins nor resurrected; therefore salvation cannot possibly be attained through faith in Christ. Salvation in Islam is a combination of works and fate. Muslims pursue the five Pillars of Religion and hope Allah is kindly disposed toward them.
Mormonism
Jesus. Mormons say Jesus preexisted in heaven as a spirit child of Heavenly Father (Ehohim) and one of his goddess wives (as did Lucifer and all pre-existent human beings). He then took on a human body through sexual relations between Heavenly Father and Mary. Mormonism recognizes the Trinity only as one in “purpose,” arguing instead for a multitude of gods.
Holy Spirit. Founder Joseph Smith taught that the Father, Son and Holy Spirit “constitute three distinct personages and three Gods.” He further said, “The Holy Ghost is yet a spiritual body and waiting to take to himself a body as the Saviour did or as the gods before them took bodies.”
The gospel. Jesus’ atonement secured “salvation” (meaning resurrection) for nearly all people, but “men will be punished for their own sins” (Article of Faith #2 by Joseph Smith). People may earn “eternal life” (godhood) by “obedience to the laws and ordinances of the gospel,” meaning works (Article of Faith #3 by Joseph Smith).
The Watchtower
Jesus. Jesus was the first and direct creation of Jehovah. Jesus then created all “other” things (Col. 1:16 New World Translation). Jehovah’s Witnesses deny the Trinity, speaking of Jesus as “a god” or “mighty god” but not divine. They deny His incarnation, death on the cross (he died on a “torture stake”) and physical resurrection. Jesus returned invisibly in 1914 and is working today to overthrow Satan’s kingdom.
Holy Spirit. The “holy spirit” (always lower case) is the invisible active force of God that moves His servants to do His will. Jehovah’s Witnesses deny the personhood and deity of the Holy Spirit, proclaiming such beliefs to be inspired by Satan.
The gospel. Salvation in the Watchtower is a combination of faith and works, but there is no eternal security and virtually no hope of today’s Witnesses ever entering heaven, which is reserved for the 144,000 in the “anointed class.” The “other sheep” may, through faithfulness to Watchtower teachings and hard work, be brought back to life after an indefinite period of soul sleep and populate Paradise Earth.
In each of his roles, Ferdinand Waldo Demara was confronted with the truth – in some cases by the persons whose identity he had stolen – and exposed as a fraud. For Christians who encounter an array of false teachings today, our best defense is the truth of God’s Word.
The writer of Hebrews put it best: “For the word of God is living and effective and sharper than any two-edged sword, penetrating as far as to divide soul, spirit, joints, and marrow; it is a judge of the ideas and thoughts of the heart. No creature is hidden from Him, but all things are naked and exposed to the eyes of Him to whom we must give an account” (4:12-13).
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The great impostor
How three of the most successful religious systems in the world proclaim “another Jesus, a different Spirit, a different gospel” (2 Cor. 11:4).
He was known as “The Great Impostor” and inspired a 1961 film by the same name.
Ferdinand Waldo Demara impersonated everyone from physicians to monks and thus achieved notoriety. He began his nefarious career during World War II by borrowing his Army buddy’s name, going AWOL and faking his suicide. A string of pseudo careers followed. He was, among other things, a sheriff’s deputy, a doctor of applied psychology, a lawyer and a child-care expert.
He was best known for masquerading as a surgeon aboard a Canadian Navy destroyer during the Korean War, successfully completing a string of operations. His final gig: serving as a Baptist minister.
Demara’s life is a fascinating but sad story of one man’s quest for respectability. His success as an impostor also exposes the soft underbelly of a society whose people are easily duped by one who talks smoothly and claims to serve the greater good.
For Christians, Demara’s story is a warning to be on guard against those who disguise themselves as “servants of righteousness” (2 Cor. 11:15). But how can we know a religious impostor when we see one? The apostle Paul gives us three clear markers in 2 Cor. 11:4. False teachers proclaim “another Jesus … a different spirit … a different gospel.”
To illustrate, let’s look briefly at three of the largest and most successful religious systems in the world today: Islam, Mormonism, and the Watchtower (Jehovah’s Witnesses) – all of which are growing worldwide and teach unbiblical doctrines concerning Jesus, the Holy Spirit and the gospel.
Christian Apologetics 101: Download free workbook
Click here to download the free workbook
Newsweek magazine recently reported that “the Christian God … is less of a force in American politics and culture than at any other time in recent memory.” Perhaps one reason is that Christianity holds to absolute truths in a society that is increasingly relativistic. When Christians hold fast to their convictions they may come under withering attacks from proponents of other faiths, secularists, or even the new breed of “angry atheists” who insist that our nation – indeed our world – would be better off with no religion at all.
Even more troubling is the realization that the church faces greater threats from within – for example, from those who relish “arguments and every high minded thing that is raised up against the knowledge of God” (2 Cor. 10:4-5); “deceitful spirits and the teachings of demons” (1 Tim. 4:1); false teachers who tickle our ears (2 Tim. 4:3); and false prophets who come to us with “cleverly contrived myths” (2 Peter 1:16).
For followers of Jesus there has never been a more important time to know what we believe, why we believe, and how to share our faith with an increasingly skeptical – and lost – world. The apostle Peter urges us to “set apart the Messiah as Lord in your hearts, and always be ready to give a defense to anyone who asks you for a reason for the hope that is in you” (1 Peter 3:15).
Apologetics 101 is designed for laypersons who want to be better equipped to share their faith over the back fence, across the lunch counter, or in the next cubicle. This workshop lays the groundwork for defending the Christian faith by addressing a number of key questions:
• What is Christian apologetics and why should it matter to me?
• How do I know the Bible is true?
• Who’s the real Jesus?
• What do Muslims, Mormons and Jehovah’s Witnesses believe?
• How can I identify false teachers?
• And what are some tactics for sharing my faith with people who don’t share my faith?
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