Looking from "The Other Side"...Christianity

I remember when my Christian friends joined me for a pageant similar to The Manti Mormon Miracle Pageant. It was the first time they invited me to go to church with them in sort of a quid pro quo "we sat through your 2 hour production, so how 'bout coming to our church!" [It's waaay coooler with waaaay better music than the Mormon Tabernacle durges, and ooooh by the way, it's the God's honest truth taught from The Word of God, and it will release you from this bondage forever!]---In looking back, they truly HAD to be thinking that, but they've never really told me what the stunned looks on their faces were registering after Jesus was portrayed appearing in "the Americas" before he ascended to heaven in the resurrection.

...anyway... I couldn't fathom what they could have been thinking until I sat through the Manti Pageant as a Christian. Their hearts had to have been crying out for my salvation the way every missionary on the streets yearns for the soft heart that will hear their plea to please listen to the truth. I can't imagine how many times I grieved them as I defended Mormonism on every front right up to the point of my salvation after attending their Christian church for over a year.

Now that I'm a Christian, and especially after experiencing Manti, it's so obvious that we aren't just on the opposite sides of the fenced temple lawn, we're on opposite sides of the spiritual spectrum from Mormons. It's just painful to see the effectiveness of mind control and deception.

As the pageant begins, the Christians are portrayed in separate denominations. The dialogue manages to mock doctrines of salvation by grace, the reality of hell, and a Christian pastor's inability to answer a question. The sad truth is that had this been my old days of "Rocky Horror Picture Show" (high school & pre-Salvation ---sorry) I would have let loose with the answer to the stupid questions and said something akin to, "We CHRISTIANS are right out here...on the OTHER side of the fence! WE CAN HEAR YOU! If you'd like, we'll ANSWER the questions." But, thanks to a Power greater than my impulse, I was restrained.

The Joseph Smith movie (now showing at your nearest LDS Temple Visitor's Center...see previous blogs) portrayed Christian pastors as crabby greasy-haired bossy unbelievers, and Christians as suspicious women or unshaven men with very bad teeth, and almost inevitably dark haired and dark eyed. The pageant adds that they can't sing hymns in harmony.

The LDS youth mock the Christians in the streets for sport. They get whipped into a frenzy while the Mormon Tabernacle Choir echoes on. The adult LDS roll their eyes at the Christians or refuse to look at them as if they truly are the "abomination" that Joseph Smith claimed that God himself told him. They walk by shaking their heads, or muttering, "Get a life," or "Don't you have something better to do?" [to which I once replied, "Oh you betcha! I come from a big city! I have friends and PLENTY of things to do. I can think of LOTS better to do.... but NOTHING more IMPORTANT!] Or, the adults get all riled up and very confrontational. The women turn into "Momma Bears" that come rushing to young teens to hustle them away from "anti's", and the men turn into fierce yellers or complain to the security and police that "there should be an ordinance" keeping the Christians off the public streets "with their trash".

The most telling event was when someone stood an 8-foot wooden cross in the streets. The Christians would stand near it, group near it. I clung to it at one moment - oh The CROSS! But the Mormons gave it wide berth. They would snear. They were stirred to verbal opposition of "Why would you people bring THAT here when you must know how offensive it is to us!"

And there you have it. The Cross is foolishness to those who are perishing, but to us who are being saved, it is the very power of God.

The Christian missionaries' hearts are breaking for these Mormons. Until they can embrace the truth of the Gospel of Jesus Christ, we'll stay on the other side of the fence, and say with tears in our eyes and the joy of the Lord, "We are the Christians. You are the Mormons. Would you like to hear the difference?"

And in the meantime, back in Every City, USA, we'll pray that people wake up and stop saying, "But they're such nice people, they're Christian, too."

A "Typical" Night on the Streets

The Scene is Set
After a day of devotionals, prayer, worship, studying and training, then dinner and more prayer, the Christians head to the streets surrounding the LDS Temple in Manti. There are 14,000 chairs set up on the lawn facing the hill where the Temple stands atop. The LDS hymns and children's songs are broadcast throughout the streets and can be heard at least a block away into the main street of Manti.

Prayer and Worship
The Christians enter a blocked off public road alongside the Temple where people cross to enter the temple grounds. They meet in the center and begin singing praises to God and then pray right in the middle of LDS buildings and the growing LDS crowd. As they sing and pray, some curious onlookers wander the perimeter of the group, and others walk by rolling their eyes and making snide remarks.

Out to the Street
The Christians separate, and some sign holders take preferred positions. Most of the youth groups and college students just walk among the crowd, introduce themselves and ask opening questions, then share the True Gospel of Jesus as clearly as possible. To see direct evangelism of this sort is incredible! They walk right up to people entering the street and get into discussions. Some give out specific LDS - oriented gospel tracts, but the LDS will walk straight to the garbage cans and drop them right in front of the Christians.

But "they're Christian, too..." right?
The police and security throughout the streets make it very clear that they are there to protect the Christians in the streets. When I talked to several of them, however, they say that our being there is "antagonistic" or "confrontational", so basically, our presence initiates the contention, no matter how well-behaved the Christians are. Admittedly, there ARE some who are more confrotational in their evangelism than others. One, whose site is linked here, (MormonInfo.org, or see JosephLied.com), is extremely bold in his accusations against Mormonism, but after listening to him night after night, I would say that his message is no more confrontational than any of the ancient prophets' declaring the need for repentence and tearing down the idols of their culture.

The LDS men and young men are the most hostile. They will scream in the face of a Christian man who has NOT been confrontational, they scream at the street preachers, they scream at the sign holders, and tend to whip the crowd into a frenzy. Some of the men who were obviously leaders of packs of students (matching shirts make it obvious) egg their students on in asking pointed questions. Often it's as rude as the talk shows that let everyone talk at once, but the miraculous thing is that the Christians stay patient, are prepared for this, and get the message out.

Divine Appointments & Soft Hearts
While the main "show" can be clumps of loud crowds, throughout the streets there are quiet conversations happening with people who are miraculously matched in demeanor and conversation and who will ask and answer the questions. The prayers of the Believers, even among the crowds) is that they will find the one who is sincerely listening and seeking.

Miller Time
The pageant starts at sundown - around 9:30 pm. The Missionaries to Mormons head to a place called "Miller's Bakery" to snack and share stories from the "spiritual war zone".

ON THE STREETS OF MANTI

There are not enough words to describe the streets of Manti.

We have people of all ages, all denominations, all methods, all exposures to Mormonism from Ex-LDS to recently "noticed" them. They bring scriptures, they hold signs, they talk to people one on one or in large groups one on 10. They have studied Mormonism more than most Mormons. They know The Word better than most Christians. They love these people as people and just want to reach them. They love the Lord, and recognize that his ways of reaching people were not always soft and politically correct. They are moved with compassion as they look over this crowd. I've never been in such a large group of people gifted with intercession and evangelism.

There is a city street that is barricaded off right next to the temple. The Temple is on one side, a city park and an LDS church building are on the other side of the street. The street is where the Christian teams pray while people stare at them, sing praises while people laugh at them, share information while people fire off questions at them, stand while people scream at them. What is our faith if we don't share it? How much do you know about what you believe if you haven't been asked questions about it?

The hearts of the teams are so broken for these people. They spend the morning praying for them and learning more and more from the LDS books about what they believe and the contrast. I'll write more when I can.

Oh... and Believers are outnumbered by LDS 1000 to 1. BUT, if 1 can put 1000 to flight and 2 can put 10,000 to flight, we're right where The Lord would have us.

WORD for the day: WOW!

Catch Up...hehe

Wow... we went to Temple Square and then it's been non-stop ever since. The days are long and have become blurs, but here are some brief catch-ups from last week:

Temple Square - Monday (6/12)
WORD FOR THE DAY: yikes!

A blast from my past. I remember our trips to SLC as a family for family reunions and to attend conference. The only part I didn't revisit was The Beehive House - Brigham Young's Polygamy house.

Visitor's Square Tour - Just prayed. Can't be impressed by the self-adulation of the church these days.

We used to have a 3 foot picture of The Christus hanging in our house. Now, standing under the original statue is just creeeeepy. Pupil-less eyes, expressionless face, split beard, stark lifeless white, surrounded by the universe.

A Sister Missionary was challenging one of our group members with "Don't you believe in modern day prophets?" She rephrased and rephrased, and eventually the team member turned to me. I was sitting down, trying to stay out of the conversation, but noooooo.... So, I
said, "No, we don't believe in prophets like your prophets... Hebrews 1 explains that God spoke through the prophets in times PAST, but Jesus has fulfilled the need for them... AND... the prophets of old DID NOT bring new doctrine or new religion or NEW revelation - they took the people back to The Law and proclaimed REPENT in various ways. AND not to mention, NONE of the prophets WANTED to be a prophet. This wasn't a popular position to be in, especially since should they dare give a prophecy in the name of The Lord, there was a zero tolerance for 'missing the mark'. One false prediction/prophecy, and you were stoned to death - based on The Law - Deuteronomy, check it out for yourself, and while you're at it, read Ezekiel 13. " yikes.

Joseph Smith Movie - "Prophet of the Restoration"
Full feature-length film about Joseph Smith - Coming to an LDS Temple Visitor's Center near you.
aka - "The Passion of the Smith". sorry. plagiarism of Mel Gibson's art did NOT go unnoticed. At one point I turned to a guy in our group and said, "Why don't they just crucify him and get it over with?" The opening scene was like the Gethsemane scene, they now portray him doing everything from shepherding to healing the sick. Jesus or Joseph people... there is only ONE name given under heaven by which men will be saved. Hint.... which came first?

They also actually SHOW scenes where Joseph Smith is receiving the LDS priesthood (which is believed to be the Jewish priesthood RESTORED) from - get this - the resurrected John the Baptist (WITH his head!), and Peter, James, and John. I thought the resurrection happens later?! Did the Jewish priesthood leave? What does the Bible say about the Jewish priesthood? (Leviticus)

Admission - CHRISTIANS in our group were so appalled and insensed that they were talking about it on the property and an "official" temple grounds person told them to take the discussion off the property. A lady asked one of our group what he thought of the movie. He said, "Well, they practically deified Joseph." She said, "And rightfully so!" YIKES.

LDS History Museum
Saw lots of relics from my family background...pioneers. One of the things the movie portrayed was Joseph Smith being tarred and feathered as "persecution". The persecution complex is so emphasized that nobody really talks about WHY he was tarred and feathered - he was caught having sex in the barn with a 14-year-old girl he'd taken as a "spiritual wife". It pushed the people over the edge and they came after him with a veterinarian that was ready to castrate him, but changed his mind "just in case" he was a prophet and went for the tar and feathers. In the end, I bet his 1st wife, Emma, wished that were the former were the case. He ended up with approx. 22 wives before his death based on genealogy (more mentioned in various writings). JSmith was in his late 30's when he died. His youngest wife was another little gal, Helen Mar Kimball, daughter of Heber C. Kimball who was 14. She was promised that all her family would be guaranteed salvation if she married him. No pressure. NONE of this is mentioned in the Hails to Joseph Smith throughout the visitors' center or LDS portrayals, even here in the Manti Pageant. That's called whitewashing. Again, Ezekiel 13 comes to mind.

Just as you walk in to the history museum, there was a case with the gun that Joseph Smith had in Carthage Jail when he was "led as a lamb to the slaughter" and martyred as he killed 2 people and wounded one. Best to look up "martyr". Foxe's Book of Martyrs has some great examples. Joseph isn't mentioned. Some are even from Nero's reign (Polycarp...) including near and after the dark ages, which Mormons are taught indicate that God removed his truth from the earth. You see, there never was an apostacy from Christianity, there is always a remnant of Believers that have grown the body of Christ worldwide amidst great persecution...therefore no need for the "prophet of the restoration."

There were also replicas of the breastplate and spectacles that were one of the methods of translation for the Golden Plates. I was raised on that version of the story, so it was good to see the replicas, since I've found out that the witness accounts also include Joseph looking directly at the plates (written in "reformed Egyptian", a non-existent language), as well as gazing into a black felt hat containing two stones (yep, ROCKS) and calling out the words and having a scribe on the other side of a curtain write what he said.

The museum store contained all kinds of photo art, books, toys, pioneer action figures. The best was a replica of a relic they call "The Liahona", a compass tool used by the people of the Book of Mormon as they were leaving "the old world." It's like a gold ball with a pointy frame. It only worked right when they were good. When they were murmuring and complaining, it didn't work. This group didn't need a cloud by day or pillar of fire by night. You tilt the toy version and it says "follow the Lord" or something like that ala "Magic 8 Ball."

Well, that was fun and gasping on Temple Square.

The best part of the day was hanging with our group and getting to know such enthusiastic people from around the nation who have been in ministry to these people for years. It's amazing to all of us that the people don't ask questions about what they were taught, but I'm there to remind them that eventually we do!

Some good info is available at www.irr.org. Check out "The Bible vs. The Book of Mormon" at www.lhvm.org if you're interested in "the language barrier".

BLESSINGS!!

What brings me to Manti?

As I've attended various evangelistic churches over the past six or seven years, I've had the opportunity to hear countless Christian missionaries tell their stories about going into the foreign mission fields. Some of them go for long-term, even life-long ventures into third world countries, and others go on short term missions to help the missionaries that are already in the fields. Some go as medical teams, some go as infrastructure builders, some go as teachers. All of them brave whatever physical hardships, third-world conditions, or political resistence to Christianity that faces them with a certain amount of "that's just part of the deal." They're willing to sleep on church benches, travel to the ends of the world, live out of a suitcase, and speak directly to people who might just hate Christians. While I was impressed, part of me thought they were nuts.

I remember the first time I was asked to join a team that was heading for India. I picked up the brochure. I listened as the missionaries told about everything from the smell to the food. I looked at my friend, Michelle, who was leading the mission team, and said, rather matter-of-factly, "No, I'm really not into third world stuff. I'm not called to be a missionary. I really don't get that whole 'heart for missions' thing. I think I'm a check writer." (I never let on that as a Military Brat, I'd spent some time in third world countries and travelled outside the good ol' US of A.)

Then I was layed off from my corporate job. Almost by accident as I was hitting the internet on the job search, I was drawn into a discussion board about Mormonism. Before I knew it, I was up all night some nights online witnessing to a people group I knew a lot about. The more I answered their questions, the deeper I had to dig into my own beliefs as a Christian, as well as into my past as a former Mormon.

Pretty soon people were asking me to join them on missions trips to Turkey, Israel, the Phillipines. I easily put them off, and said, "No, that's just not my thing. I'm not a missionary." As the years went by, everything that I would claim as a security - family, home, belongings, some friends, corporate America - fell away one thing at a time. I was learning to be pretty flexible, and rely on The Lord for everything that I thought I could provide for myself. One time I had a Philipino pastor ask me to come to the Philipines over a lunch meeting. I had looked at his pictures from a missions trip, and said, "no thanks." He said, "You're too comfortable as an American." Then I gave him a little insight into my "American " personal circumstances at the time, and he replied, "Oh, you're being prepared to be a missionary." I cringed.

You see, the word "missionary" didn't have the greatest association now that I was no longer Mormon. I'd had "every member a missionary" (Mormon slogan) and "I Hope They Call Me On a Mission" (a Mormon children's song) drilled into my head since age 3. We'd had more missionaries in our home than I can count. I really didn't want to hear any more about it, and the word still occasionally catches in my throat like water down the wrong pipe. "Evangelism", that's the word that seemed to flow with me pretty easily.

I remember that I'd heard the story of those girls who'd gone on a mission trip to teach in Afghanistan and ended up getting caught by the Taliban and causing an international scene. The first time I heard it, they fell into the "nutty missionary" category. A few years later when I heard the rest of the story, I was fascinated, and started understanding their heart for the women and the oppression of the extreme religious conditions in Afghanistan. I started seeing some parallels. I started "getting it".

Then, people started asking me to share my testimony of leaving Mormonism with church groups. After a sermon on Legacy in 2004, I knew something had changed. I was getting that "missionary heart" thing. I recognized that my legacy had been changed because somebody had shared the truth about Jesus with me. I was a becoming a missionary for a lost people group, in a foreign culture, in a modern society, with all the trappings of American life, clean, sweet-smelling, milk-drinking, Mormons. Perfect looking, but perfectly lost. I became willing to sleep on church benches, travel to the ends of the world, live out of a suitcase, and speak directly to people who might just hate Christians.

Now, like Jonah, this is not the mission I would have liked to pursue. I kind of like LA and the media, and the beach. I've lost my whole family to Mormonism after I left the church. Mormons can be pretty smug and superior. They think they have the truth. Welcome to my Ninevah. BUT, I know their language. I pray they come to know the One True God. I pray that their leaders repent for leading them away from the Holy One of Israel. And, I'm trying hard to avoid the Jonah attitude that brings upon one a good scolding from The One Who gives the assignment! =) Now it's hard for me to shut up about them, the belief system, how Christians need to wake up to this unreached group in their backyard.

So, here I am... off to Manti, Utah... a short-term mission. Where I'm looking forward to meeting with newly saved Ex-LDS, and working with long-term missionaries in the field and Christians who see the same perfect looking, perfectly lost people group, and are willing to put feet to the faith and share The Gospel where 100,000 Mormons will come to see the Mormon Miracle Pageant, but hopefully be met by the Miracle of the Good News about Jesus!

I hope you enjoy Postcards from Manti, and begin to reach out to the lost in your own backyard!

Sunday - Tuesday

(my apologies if the blog is a mess... I have signed in several times and it hasn't looked right once, so I'm going to post & pray! that should work!)

Yeowza! What a full couple of days. It will be interesting to see how much I'm able to post. I'm dividing my time between the home of my lovely hosts, the local Christian church, and a College coffee house.

The main thing right now is that we are requesting prayers for the efforts of the Christian missionaries, pastors, congregation, and teams from here and elsewhere. Any prayer notes that come in are posted on the doorposts for encouragement to the teams.

So far, we are feeding about 40 people at each meal. It's a good thing there are ex-LDS in the congregation who are used to feeding small armies! Awesome!

We have mostly been reviewing terminology differences between Mormonism and Christianity - grace, God, Jesus, salvation, exaltation - the basics, that are ALL different. The main thing to emphasize is that these Christians love love love this people group. They are so excited about sharing the Good News that life isn't about fitting into a pre-planned mold! ...That living for Christ isn't based on what you can do, it's what He does through you.

How do you tell the LDS that the Christians are here because they LOVE them, NOT because they hate them and want to persecute them as they've been raised to believe?! If they only knew how thrilled these people woud be if a group of 'em walked into dinner time and said, "Hi!"
=)

SO... we prepare, we worship, we sing. We set our minds on the example of Jesus and how He reached people. We know that the weight of the "laws and ordinances of the (LDS) gospel" is too much to bear along with the weight of the law of God... we prepare to be able to articulate that and offer the answer - Jesus... who bore it all... on the cross... once and for all.

The hardest thing for the exLDS converts to deal with, I think, is that this time last year, they were on the other side of the fence - participating in Pageant, working for the pageant, and all the time yearning for answers to their questions about the LDS church. So, to them, these Christian groups may still look like marauding persecutors, and this is a great paradigm shift to see how excited the Christians are to meet them, know them, and embrace them in the family of Christ. They still have to live in the community after it's all over, so please lift them up in prayer! It's hard to tell them "it's all worth it" right now, but... it is!

Tomorrow we head for Salt Lake Temple Square for a field trip out of this beautiful, sleepy little town in the valley of the Mountains of Utah.

Blessings, all! Please pray! The efforts to teach, transport, entertain, house, and feed these groups is mighty, but very fun!