Are Mormons Christian?

I have a problem with Pew Research, a widely respected poll firm. In a poll study released in May of 2015, called “America’s Changing Religious Landscape,” they included Mormonism as a Christian Faith.  The problem is, this would lead people to believe that Mormonism is an orthodox Christian religion.  But the fact is, they began from an occult practice, and are widely unorthodox, or non-Christian, in much of their doctrine.  Having Jesus in their official name (Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints) is an affront to Christ, rather than honoring Him. 

The Latter Day Saints (LDS) got their start with Joseph Smith Jr.  Born in 1805, he published the Book of Mormon when he was 24, in 1830. It was based upon his many visions.   In one of them, in 1823, an angel named “Moroni” directed him to a buried book of golden plates, inscribed with a Judeo-Christian history of an American civilization, which included the idea that Jesus visited America while He was on earth.  Smith translated the golden plates into English.  In that same year he organized a religion, what he called a “restoration” of the early Christian church (he considered all denominations since then apostate, carrying the wrong gospel).  But his attempts to find gathering places for his believers came upon hard times.  He was driven from Kirtland, Ohio, on a charge of bank fraud.  At Nauvoo, Illinois, his followers destroyed a printing press shop which criticized his church’s beliefs, particularly the practice of polygamy.  He was jailed, and then killed when a mob stormed the jailhouse in 1844. 

That’s the “sanitized” story.  Now for the dark side of the truth.  In his earliest years, he and his family engaged in religious folk magic.  Both his parents, and his mother’s father, received visions, which they asserted were directly from God. The family, in dire need of money, hired themselves out as “treasure seekers.”   In 1820 (he was 14) he received a vision from God who told him that all contemporary churches had “turned aside from the gospel.” In the 1823 “visit by Moroni” (he was 17), he not only was directed to the golden plates, which were buried conveniently at the Hill Cumorah, near his New York home, but with it were a pair of seer stones (which he called the “Urim and the Thummim”) set in an eyeglass frame, that when put on, magically interpreted the strange symbols (which he called “Reformed Egyptian”) on the plates to English.  Smith had a history with seer stones.  He used them earlier in his treasure seeking career to try to “find lost items” for people who paid him a fee.   Those attempts were unsuccessful. He also had to appear before a Chenango County court in 1826 for con-artistry “glass looking.”

He put the golden plates in a locked chest, he says, and the angel told him not to show them to anyone.  But his “business” associates felt he had double-crossed them, and after ransacking his possessions and not finding them, he felt it was a good time to get out of town, with his now-pregnant wife.  So they moved, taking the plates with him, supposedly.  Starting in 1828, he got help cleaning up the abominable English grammar in his journals from a new associate, Martin Harris. Either he, or Oliver Cowdery, or Smith’s wife Emma wrote the English transcription of the Book of Mormon--by sitting on the other side of a curtain while Smith dictated with golden plates and seer glasses.  But then Harris lost the original English partial manuscript.  As a punishment, Smith alleges, the angel took away the plates and his power to interpret.  In this low time in his religious career, he attended a Methodist church—until a relative complained about the inclusion of a “practicing necromancer” on the church roll--him.  (Necromancy is talking to the spirits of dead people—in other words, a sorcerer). A true charge.  So he was forced out.  Later he told his associates he got the plates back.  But they’ve never been found.  Smith said Moroni took them back when he was through using them.

Smith’s associates were questionable characters.  Cowdery was expelled from the fledgling Church later, supposedly for practicing counterfeiting.  But the real reason Smith threw him out, though, was that he began claiming that he also had received revelations from God. (I expect he asked himself, "Why does Smith get all the glory?")   Soon after, several other original church members flew the coop.  But Smith then received a revelation that he was the only prophet and apostle, and only he could receive revelations from God.  To permanently disconnect Cowdery’s influence from everyone, Smith then dispatched him on a mission to proselytize Native Americans. Send him far away.

Cowdery got back at him for this humiliation.  He had originally testified that he heard someone who claimed to be John the Baptist, who told them to baptize one another, which they did; but later admitted that the “voice” of John the Baptist “did most mysteriously resemble the voice of Elder Sidney Rigdon.”  Rigdon, another shady associate, had a military background; during a Fourth of July celebration, he declared that Mormons would no longer tolerate persecution by the local Missourians and spoke of a "war of extermination" if Mormons were attacked. Smith implicitly endorsed this speech, and many non-Mormons understood it to be a thinly-veiled threat. But they followed and hounded him even more.

Martin Harris (the transcript-loser) was also expelled from the Mormon church.  His reason for expulsion was that he supported a young lady “seeress” who claimed she could see the future through a black stone.  The truth in this decision to excommunicate was, simply, that Smith again showed that he wanted idolization focused on him, and to be the only one with supernatural power.  Harris had signed a paper saying that he had seen the golden plates. But as with Cowdery, when kicked out of the Mormon church, another piece of the truth came out—he later admitted that he only saw the plates “by the eye of faith.”    As a matter of fact, of the 11 people who had signed a document saying they had seen the plates, all those witnesses (except Joseph’s father and two brothers) had been expelled as apostates or had left of their own accord.  I suspect there were various reasons that covering for Smith’s lies wasn’t worth it.

Smith gained other followers by preaching to people who were emotionally inclined—when he heard about camp meetings (plenty of those at the time) that reported there were people having fits and trances, speaking in tongues, and rolling on the ground, he went there.  He told open-air crowds that they would soon receive an endowment of heavenly power, that he would lead them to a new Millennial kingdom, and he was going to find a site for the New Jerusalem.  But as his "church" grew, its leadership was constantly in dispute.  To keep attention on himself, Smith spoke frequently of how they were persecuted and how he would like to respond with military reaction.  At one time, he led a paramilitary group which shot two of their persecutors to death, and lost one of their own.  There were later intense gunbattles in Missouri, where he was arrested, brought before the court on a charge of treason, but escaped custody in 1839.  Smith lamented that his Mormons were an “oppressed minority” and petitioned the federal government for reparations. Some of the government in Illinois felt sorry for him. He was allowed to legally found the city of Nauvoo, Illinois, with city-charter power to fend off extradition to Missouri.  The Nauvoo Mormons also formed a militia, granting them the power to arm the largest body of men in Illinois. He was now “Lieutenant General” Smith.  That’s when he began teaching plural marriage to his closest associates, and he raised the doctrine of baptism for the dead.  (His book Doctrines and Covenants reveal most of his theology—not the Book of Mormon, which is more biographical).  

But Missourians kept hounding him, so in 1843 he petitioned Congress that Nauvoo would be an independent territory, and could call out federal troops to defend him. When neither Congress nor Presidential candidates listened to him, his huge ego caused him to declare a third party campaign for himself for president—which went nowhere.  He also formed a secret council to help decide which state or national laws Mormons should obey. (As with most cults, they wanted to do anything, or break any laws they want, without government restraint).

He was accused of having a sexual relationship with his servant girl in 1831, but she was probably the first of his estimated 46 plural wives (many of those marriages occurred after his death--by proxy, a part of Mormon doctrine).  He took many of these wives privately, but still denied it publicly, where he claimed not to teach or practice polygamy--he was worried about his wife trying to kill him.  But after his 1844 death, Brigham Young (who followed him into presidency) made a startling public statement in 1852.  Young produced a paper, in Smith’s handwriting, that in 1843 Smith had a revelation from God.  A revelation from a Prophet means that it was “legal” for the whole church (though this one was later illegal in civil law).  The revelation legalized polygamy.  In the text of the revelation, it also states that the first wife's consent should be sought before a man marries another wife--but also declares that Christ will "destroy" the first wife if she does not consent to the plural marriage!  If consent is denied the husband is exempt from asking his wife's consent in the future.  The revelation states that plural wives "are given unto him to multiply and replenish the earth…and for their exaltation in the eternal worlds, that they may bear the souls of men.”  

After this revelation was published, 20-30% of the church’s families became polygamous, and remained so even when the federal government declared an Anti-Bigamy law in 1862, but it was not outlawed by Mormons until 1904, with ex-communication if they didn’t obey.  The impression I get is, they were forced to give up polygamy. (But it’s still in their Doctrine & Covenants). A small part of rogue Mormons are still polygamous.  

Brigham Young, LDS president after Smith died in a hail of bullets, was polygamous; he was tired of how Smith sneaked around and wanted this out in the open; he ended up with about 55 wives.  But many of these women were already married when they took up religious sexual union with Young and Smith—in at least one case, the husband knew about it—and approved!—saying the prophet could do whatever he wanted to do.  They married some young girls—a 14-year old, for instance—and married some in their 50s.  Smith’s first wife, Emma, remained a dyed-in-the-wool LDSer who claimed the first she ever heard about all this multiple wives was 9 years after he died, even though she was shown of his 1843 revelation establishing polygamy at that time.  There have been studies and witnesses which conclude that from the 1830s to 1904, much seduction, rape, adultery, bigamy, and some abortions went on for practicing Mormons. 

The reason for Smith’s death was a hard act to follow.  He fell into a dispute with two of his associates in 1844, presumably over leadership, but the truth was more likely that he had allegedly proposed to "celestially" marry their wives!  When they gave him a hard time, he excommunicated them.  But they turned on him; going to civil authorities, they procured indictments against Smith for perjury.   They even made a newspaper decrying his doctrine of many Gods, and saying he used polygamy to seduce unassuming women.  Non-Mormons got heated up by Smith's "traitors," and  Smith was jailed, facing charges of inciting a riot, and later treason.  It was there that he was shot by a jailhouse mob.  He is buried in Nauvoo, Illinois. 

Well, that was the real story about the glorious founder of the Mormon church.  Now let’s talk about their doctrines not being orthodox.  Keep one important thing in mind:  Prophets, the presidents of their Church, can receive revelations for Church life and rules. These come from God.  (But God presumably changes his mind, since they did).  At the beginning, it was Smith only.  Later the president of the Quorum of the Twelve, was the prophet who could hear changes in doctrine from God.   This means their “Word” is not infallible, and can be changed whenever another vision visits a prophet.  As Doctrines & Covenants  21:1,2, and 5 says (they’re allegedly quoting God):

Behold, there shall be a record kept among you; and in it thou shalt be called a seer, a translator, a prophet… 2 Being inspired of the Holy Ghost to lay the foundation thereof… thou shalt give heed unto all his words and commandments which he shall give unto you as he receiveth them, walking in all holiness before me; 5 For his word ye shall receive, as if from mine own mouth, in all patience and faith.

Now let's start with Christian orthodoxy on the subject of marriage:  Marriage is between one man and one woman, and is for life on earth.  In heaven, there is no marriage.  Start with Genesis 2:22-24:

Then the rib which the Lord God had taken from man He made into a woman, and He brought her to the man. ²³ And Adam said: “This is now bone of my bones And flesh of my flesh; She shall be called Woman, Because she was taken out of Man.” ²⁴ Therefore a man shall leave his father and mother and be joined to his wife, and they shall become one flesh.

Now Matthew 22:30, the words of Jesus:

For in the resurrection they neither marry nor are given in marriage, but are like angels of God[a] in heaven.

Mormon doctrine (which has been remitted by manifest, but doctrine unchanged):  Doctrine on Sealed marriage often led to plural marriage—This means multiple marriages in heaven.  D&C (i.e., Doctrines and Covenants) 132:19-20:

…if a man a marry a wife by my word, which is my law, and by the new and everlasting covenant, and it is  sealed unto them by the Holy Spirit of promise…they shall pass by the angels, and the gods, which are set there, to their exaltation and glory in all things, as hath been sealed upon their heads, which glory shall be a fullness and a continuation of the  seeds forever and ever. Then shall they be gods. 

(By the way, note the strange beliefs on men becoming gods, and reference to gods in the plural.)

An explanation of sealing:  A couple who has been sealed in a temple will be married beyond physical death into the afterlife.  In the marriage ceremony performed in LDS temples the words "until death do us part" are replaced with "for time and all eternity".  Civil marriages will not continue after death, but "eternal marriages" must be performed by priesthood authority. Eternal marriages are also performed vicariously for the deceased, by proxy.  Keep in mind that if a man’s wife dies, or is divorced, and he marries another, if both are sealed, he will be with both of his wives in heaven.  Thus, if the Mormons have their way, heaven will be populated with polygamy.  Thus they obtain those extra wives in the next life, if not in this one.  Brigham Young had the audacity to say:  "The only men who become Gods, even the Sons of God, are those who enter into polygamy" (Journal of Discourses, Vol. 11, p. 269, August 19, 1866).

Obviously, Mormon doctrine on marriage is in no way orthodox--it does not line up with Scripture.

One God:  Christian orthodoxy:  There is One God Who has Three Persons (the Trinity):  I John 5:7-8:

 For there are three that bear witness in heaven: the Father, the Word (ie, Jesus, see John 1:1,14), and the Holy Spirit; and these three are one.

John 10:30, a quote from Jesus:  I and My Father are one.

Mormon doctrine:  Maybe there are three Gods, maybe not:  Per the General Authority, Quorum of the 12 Apostles of 1972-1985:

Page 43:  "So the Father is God, the Son is God, and the Holy Ghost is God. And yet they are not Three Gods. 
(But on Page 194, it says this):  As pertaining to this universe, there are three Gods: the Father, Son, and Holy Ghost. All other supposed deities are false gods.  (And on Page 227): There are three Gods - the Father, Son, and Holy Ghost - who, though separate in personality, are united as one in purpose, in plan, and in all the attributes of perfection. (Some confusion here, obviously).

God is in Christians' hearts:  Christian orthodoxy:  God dwells in the hearts of believers.  See John 14:23:

 Jesus answered and said to him, “If anyone loves Me, he will keep My word; and My Father will love him, and We will come to him and make Our home with him.

 .

Mormon doctrine:  Again, they seem to contradict themselves.  In the Book of Mormon, Alma 34:36: 

36 And this I know, because the Lord hath said he dwelleth not in unholy temples, but in the hearts of the righteous doth he dwell

But in the Doctrines & Covenants, 130:3 has a comment about the Bible’s John 14:23 (above):

The appearing of the Father and the Son, in that verse, is a personal appearance; and the idea that the Father and the Son dwell in a man’s heart is an old sectarian notion, and is false

So the D&C (from God, remember) comes right out and says that a Bible verse is old, sectarian, and false.  This is heretical doctrine.

Christian orthodoxy:  One’s salvation is originally by God’s grace:

For by grace you have been saved through faith, and that not of yourselves; it is the gift of God, ⁹ not of works, lest anyone should boast.

Mormon doctrine: Salvation is by works.  Book of Mormon, Moroni 8:25:

…baptism cometh by faith unto the fulfilling the commandments; and the fulfilling the commandments bringeth remission of sins

Christian orthodoxy:  Jesus is God and eternal.  In the beginning, God created an angel, Lucifer, who went bad.  God’s children, though, are only those who follow Him; those who don’t abide with God, remain in their state of sin and ultimately go to hell.

 Let’s begin with  John 1:1,3,14 about Jesus:

In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God… ³ All things were made through Him, and without Him nothing was made that was made… And the Word became flesh and dwelt among us, and we beheld His glory…(Don't forget, Lucifer was part of creation).

Observe how Jesus speaks to unbelievers, John 8:44:

You are of your father the devil, and the desires of your father you want to do. He was a murderer from the beginning, and does not stand in the truth, because there is no truth in him. When he speaks a lie, he speaks from his own resources, for he is a liar and the father of it

Lucifer’s pride took him to evil deeds, and he became later known as the devil.  Isaiah 14:12-15:

“How you are fallen from heaven, O Lucifer son of the morning! How you are cut down to the ground, You who weakened the nations! ¹³ For you have said in your heart: ‘I will ascend into heaven, I will exalt my throne above the stars of God.. I will be like the Most High.’ ¹⁵ Yet you shall be brought down to Sheol, To the lowest depths of the Pit.

Mormon doctrine on Jesus, sin and Lucifer:  God’s many children include Jesus and Satan, suggesting they were equal.  Jesus only became God through effort.  Jesus and Lucifer vied for God’s honor.   Satan is not presented as evil; he is presented as offering himself to be our Savior, and existing, as God, “from the beginning.”

This quote is from the Mormon’s official organ; online it’s lds.org.  Again, by the way, notice another strange doctrine there:

 “According to official Mormon teaching, Jesus Christ is the first spirit child conceived and begotten by Heavenly Father and one of Heavenly Father’s many wives (commonly referred to as “Heavenly Mother”). Just as Heavenly Father before him progressed to godhood, so Jesus progressed through obedience to the status of a god (prior to his incarnation on earth).”

In the words of the late Mormon Apostle and General Authority Bruce McConkie, Jesus Christ “by obedience and devotion to the truth… attained that pinnacle of intelligence which ranked him as a God. As such, according to LDS authorities, Jesus is not to be worshiped or prayed to as one would worship or pray to Heavenly Father.”

This is a total denial that Jesus is equal to God. 

More from lds.org:

Mormons teach that “Heavenly Father subsequently had many more spirit children…thus refer to Jesus as our “elder brother.” Moreover, Mormons believe that even Satan (Lucifer) is a spirit brother of Jesus.”

According to Mormons, Satan was willing to be our Savior!   As explained in their Gospel Principles:

We needed a Savior to pay for our sins and teach us how to return to our Heavenly Father. Our Father said, “Whom shall I send?” (Abraham 3:27). Two of our brothers offered to help. Our oldest brother, Jesus Christ, who was then called Jehovah, said, “Here am I, send me” (Abraham 3:27)….Satan, who was called Lucifer, also came, saying, “Behold, here am I, send me, I will be thy son, and I will redeem all mankind, that one soul shall not be lost, and surely I will do it; wherefore give me thine honor”

Satan is even presented as existing “from the beginning,” a claim that only God can make!  From Selections from the Book of Moses (copied from LDS.org, chapter 4, 1830):

 1 And I, the Lord God, spake unto Moses, saying: That Satan, whom thou hast commanded in the name of mine Only Begotten, is the same which was from the beginning…

Christian orthodoxy:  Man is born with a tendency to sin, inherited from Adam. By God’s grace, disciples of Jesus can enjoy God’s favors in heaven, under His sovereignty.  Romans 5:12:

…just as through one man sin entered the world, and death through sin, and thus death spread to all men, because all sinned

Revelation 22:1,3:

And he showed me a pure  river of water of life, clear as crystal, proceeding from the throne of God and of the Lamb…was the tree of life…The leaves of the tree were for the healing of the nations. ³ And there shall be no more curse, but the throne of God and of the Lamb shall be in it, and His servants (us) shall serve Him.

Mormon doctrine: Men are inherently divine, and can become gods, or equal with God

This quote begins from Mormon official publication, lds.org.  It quotes specific Doctrines and Covenants.

“Latter-day Saints see all people as children of God in a full and complete sense; they consider every person divine in origin, nature, and potential…Each possesses seeds of divinity …In 1832, Joseph Smith and Sidney Rigdon experienced a vision of the afterlife. In the vision, they learned that the just and unjust alike would receive immortality through a universal resurrection, but only those “who overcome by faith, and are sealed by the Holy Spirit of promise” would receive the fullness of God’s glory and be “gods (D&C 76:53,58)” Another revelation soon confirmed that “the saints shall be filled with His glory, and receive their inheritance and be made equal with Him.”(D&C 88:107)

There are other doctrines that contradict God's Word, are un-Christian, such as a heavenly mother (see their quote above) and others.  But this is 7 pages already.  There is no way their Doctrines and Covenants come from God, as they claim, and no way are they Christian.

Sources:  Book of Mormon, Facts on Mormonism (Ankerberg), "Is Mormonism Christian" (Fraser).

Victory over the Taliban

In a recent blog I mentioned a Bible verse that had “hyperbole.” Here's Luke 14:26 to illustrate the point:

“If anyone comes to Me and does not hate his father and mother, wife and children, brothers and sisters, yes, and his own life also, he cannot be My disciple.

Hyperbole, in this case, is willingness to go to extremes--but ridiculous terms are used-- to obey Christ.  He doesn't mean we should hate our parents--but if our love for our Savior is great enough, we get the point of what He is saying.  Now I would like to tell you a story—a true story recorded in Voice of the Martyrs—about what life can be like when you follow Jesus—in Afghanistan. When your father is a top Taliban leader. It is a perfect illustration of a hyperbole.

This story is recent, so the names have been changed to protect the innocent. The protagonists will be named “John” and “Mary.” In the beginning of our story, John was 23, had a wife and baby son, and taught Islamic theology in his home town in Afghanistan. He traveled to Saudi Arabia three years ago on a hajj, a pilgrimage to Mecca. As he slept on the way overnight, John dreamed of a man with shining face and shining white clothes, who said, “My son, I see that you are seeking after me, but the real faith is not in Mecca, and I am not there.” This made John think as he performed the rituals of the hajj—what he saw was different; he saw hypocrisy in worship. In another night on the trip, John had a vision (not a dream) of the man in white. “Who are you?” he asked. “I want to talk to you because I love you,” the man replied. “If I tell you who I am, you will lose seven things. You will lose the Quran and Mohammed. You will lose your parents. You will lose your child that you love. You will lose your relatives and everyone will hate you. You will lose your wealth. You will be homeless and they will drive you from your country. If you don’t accept the loss of these seven things, you won’t be able to find Me anymore. Before you were born, I had plans for you. What is your choice?”

“If you tell me your name, I will believe in you.”

The Man replied, “I am your God; I am Jesus Christ.”

Jesus touched John’s head and then he fell asleep. When he woke up, he felt completely different. “I was completely cleansed from the inside, and I felt like I was a newborn baby.” John immediately abandoned the rest of the hajj and flew home. He called his father from the airport in Kabul. Upon arriving home, “Why did you come back?” his father asked angrily. “There are still three days left for the hajj.”
“I found my God. And I don’t believe in your Allah.”
“Whom did you find?”
“I believe in Jesus Christ,” John replied.

“You are an infidel!” his father shouted as he began to beat him. “If you speak to people like this, I will cut out your tongue.”
“I want to tell people,” John said. “I don’t want to stop.”
“If you tell people you have become a Christian, I will burn you, your wife and little son!”

John’s father threw him into a basement bunker on the property that was used for detaining and torturing anti-Taliban insurgents. He was held there for nearly 18 months, enduring repeated torture and pressure to give up his faith in Jesus. No one in the family knew where John was—his father told John’s wife Mary that he was sent to Egypt to study. John was fed almost nothing. His captors put snakes in the basement, but they either died or had no effect on him when they bit him. They also released a vicious guard dog, but it immediately became friendly with John. They even tried to crucify John upside down.

Throughout John’s long, lonely months in the bunker, he often had dreams of Jesus. “God gave me power, and told me, ‘I am with you.’” His father finally released him with a warning. “I agreed that I would not talk about Jesus to him, but I did not promise that I would not speak to anyone about Jesus,” John said.

When John walked into his home that day, after he cleaned up, he went to his wife, Mary. He wanted to tell her about Jesus. “Mary, I have to tell you something.” He said “I have to tell you something first,” she said. She told him that throughout the time he was missing, she had had dreams of Jesus. He comforted her and promised her that her husband would come home. Mary had come to believe in Jesus, but she had not told the family. John joyfully told Mary everything, and the two cried with happiness.

John didn’t stop talking about Jesus. “I began to tell my mother everything about Jesus, and then all my family believed in Jesus. But they didn’t tell anyone because of fear.” John’s mother, sisters, aunts, and cousins all began to follow Jesus. Each night, when his father was gone, John would teach them what he learned through the ministry of the Holy Spirit. Many in the community also learned of John’s new faith.

A few months later, when Mary became pregnant with her second child, John’s father instructed them to name the baby Sayeed Muhammed. “No” said John. “I don’t want to give my son an Islamic name. I am naming him Isa” (Jesus). His father exploded in anger and began beating John in the head. “Shut up, you infidel!” Then he threw John back into the bunker. When John’s father told Mary’s father (a mullah, an Islamic leader, and Taliban member), her father confronted her. “Your husband is an infidel,” he said. “You should abort the baby.”
“I believe in Jesus Christ too,” Mary told him. Her father slammed her forehead on the ground and hit her in the mouth, breaking her teeth. Then he began punching her in the abdomen. Then he tossed her limp body into the bunker with John. Her face was severely bruised from the beating.

While they were in the bunker, John’s father took their little son with him to meet some Taliban leaders in another city. Those leaders blamed John’s father for allowing his son to convert, and they ordered him to kill John. Mary’s mother heard about the plan and called John’s mother. She ran to the bunker and broke down the door. She handed John $2400, his computer, and a suitcase. “Please leave Afghanistan” she told them. “I’ll take care of your son.”

Although they didn’t want to leave their son, John and Mary knew that if they stayed at all, they would be killed. They fled. After three days and some distance, John found a Wi-fi “Skype” connection and called his mother. There was his 2-year old son sitting on her lap. John could see his son on the video screen but not her head. His son cried, “Papa! I am fine. Please come back. I miss you.” John’s mother also encouraged them to come home, saying the danger had passed. After the call, when John and Mary made plans to return, John’s mother called back again. “Don’t come back!” she warned. “The Taliban were standing right here when we were talking earlier, with a gun against my head. You must leave immediately.” John and Mary went on the run again, going as far as they could before the money ran out. They tried to register as refugees, but local Muslim workers refused to accept them because they were Christian converts.

But Mary was in severe pain, and could hardly move, having never healed from her father’s beating. A doctor gave them the bad news. The child in Mary’s womb had died, and Mary could die too if the fetus were not removed immediately. The procedure would cost $5,000. John didn’t have any money. That evening at home, John cried while Mary slept. As he prayed, he felt the Lord leading him to anoint his wife with oil and pray over her. John did, and prayed that Jesus would save his unborn son.  Eventually he fell asleep.

The next morning, Mary was up and around, so they went to the doctor. He delivered some incredible news. “The baby is alive! How is this possible?” John shared his whole testimony with the doctor and told him that he had prayed in the name of Jesus that his son would be healed. “It is a miracle” the doctor said. “I’ve never seen something like this in my life.” The doctor called others from the clinic into the room to see Mary and John shared his story with them too. Several people in the room believed in Christ that day.

The Taliban had continued to stalk John. He received threatening phone calls from radicals in Pakistan, Afghanistan, and even Saudi Arabia. The Taliban issued a demand: they would return to Afghanistan and recant their Christian faith, or their 2-year old son would be killed. The deadline was October 4, 2013. John did everything he could. He spoke to the embassy. He went to the U.N. Refugee Agency. But no one would help. A few days later, John’s father turned the little boy over to the Taliban—in order to restore his honor among his terrorist friends.

A relative called Mary and John with the horrible news that their son died. “The Taliban put a picture of my dead son on their website” John said. The murder of the little boy shocked John’s mother and five sisters. They asked how the Islamic faith could justify killing a child because of his father’s actions. They told John’s father that his acts were shameful, and they then told their whole village that they, too, were following the Jesus Christ that John had shared with them.

“Very soon, we learned from my wife’s brother that my father killed his wife and my five sisters and buried them” John said. “We believe him, because we have not heard or seen anything of my sisters.” Although Mary’s brothers were Taliban members, they disagreed with the leadership about killing John’s son. And then, when the Taliban and John’s father killed John’s sisters, Mary’s brothers initiated a gunfight with other Taliban members. The body of her oldest brother was found days later with one hand cut off, but her youngest brother managed to escape.

When Mary’s father found out that his wife was the one who had revealed the Taliban’s plot to kill the couple, he killed her by feeding her rat poison. John and Mary could only weep and pray, saying, ”God, you know.”

In November 2013, John and Mary were baptized. In February 2014 little Isa was born, perfectly healthy. Because of continual threats from the Taliban, the family was forced to move six times in eight months. John continued to share Jesus with everyone, often speaking with Afghan tradesmen working in the markets. He once prayed with a medical assistant about her infertility, and later she called to tell him she had just learned that she was pregnant. John began using the internet to minister to Afghans around the world, including his former Muslim students in Afghanistan. Many have turned to Christ through John’s powerful witness. John continues to teach new converts. He leads hours of internet worship services with small groups several times a week.

In late 2014, John, Mary, and Isa were accepted as refugees in a Western country. And John continues sharing about Christ. “Every second I work for God I want more people to see Jesus. I don’t want people to see me; I want them to see God. I lost everything, so I want to tell people about Jesus. God said He made many houses in heaven; he needs people in them.”

So, it ended up that many of John’s beloved relatives were murdered—so what was the meaning of my title, “victory” over the Taliban? The answer is: Many souls were won to the Lord. John will see his relatives in heaven again. None of their lives meant so much to them—or him—such as to sway them from their indomitable love for Our Savior. They loved Him so much that their feelings for each other seemed like hate in comparison. Our Lord gave up His life for us. What should we be willing to do for Him?   What Jesus spoke was hyperbole in Luke 14:26 above, but John and Mary were the perfect examples of what it means.

Acknowledgement Voice of the Martyrs, January, 2015

Good Guys, Bad Guys--Part 2

On the subject of “who are the good guys, who are the bad guys,” I have another thought-provoking article for you.  We’ve all watched cowboys and Indians when we were kids.  Cowboys were always the good guys, protecting our women and children from the savages who would scalp them, or the bad guys who try to push them around, right?  Well, that’s not always the way it was.  I have a true story about the year 1780 and thereabouts, and it happened in our original colonies, during the time of the American Revolution.

When Thomas Jefferson wrote the famous words, “All men are created equal” and endowed with rights, it must be bluntly said that he only meant white men—he did not mean black men--or Indians.  Even as early as 1780, our colonies were already in the practice of making treaties with Indians, then breaking them, pushing them back, confiscating their land, even though it was necessary for their survival, and paying them nothing for it.  Some eastern Indian tribes had already been pushed nearly to the point of extinction—many starved, many were not able to move a distance to land that was not arable (most Indians were not raised as nomadic).  Americans fighting for freedom from taxes and authority felt no compunction about stealing Indian livelihood and freedom.  The Indians fought back, and reacted viciously.  It’s true that many Indians sided with the British during the Revolution, but why not?  The British treated them better than American colonists, as careful study will show. For instance, under a treaty with colonists, the British set up forts to try to prevent American settlers from crossing over the Appalachians and stealing more Indian land.  Americans, in a continuation of “Christian high character,” reneged on that treaty too, and continued westward anyhow. 

George Washington, would you believe, demanded that there be a final solution for one section of soil (I hate to use that term; yes, George Washington was advocating genocide)—he wanted the total annihilation of the six Iroquois nations, who were raiding them persistently—but, keep in mind, they were trying to save their land.  The American soldiers began burning down Iroquois villages in 1779-1780.  Their march down the Susquehanna had the same goal of Sherman’s march to Atlanta. They burned all the grain, all the crops, every fruit tree.  Thousands of Indian women and children and the old died of starvation in this “scorched earth” policy.  Survivors fled to Canada.

A group of Indians who suffered the worst fate were the Lenape, who began in Pennsylvania.  Most Lenape were pushed out of their homeland during the 1700s by expanding European colonies, and by newly introduced diseases, mainly smallpox.  They finally settled in the Ohio River basin.  What’s unique here is that many of them were sincerely converted to Christianity by Moravian missionaries before the Revolution (ed. Note:  After study, Moravians are regular Protestants from what is now Czech Republic).  They were non-resistant—i.e., they wouldn’t fight back under aggression.  They laid down their tomahawks and bows and arrows, remaining neutral in the Revolution, and they truly meant to follow Jesus in loving their enemies.  Their village was named Gnadenhutten, which means “huts of grace.” But they were, in 1781, pushed out (by British allies, this time) to near Lake Erie near the Sandusky River—still in Ohio, but this time the village was named “Captive Town.” They lost their independence, and without initial crops, they were going hungry—but they were ignored under Washington's draconian rules.  And it was past harvest time. In February 1782, more than 100 of them returned to their old Moravian villages to harvest the crops and collect stored food they had been forced to leave behind. The frontier war was still raging. In early March, the Lenape were surprised by a raiding party of 160 Pennsylvania militia led by Lieutenant Colonel David Williamson. The militia rounded up the Christian Lenape and accused them of taking part in raids into Pennsylvania. Although the Lenape denied the charges and explained their non-resistance from reading about Christ, the militia held a council and voted to kill them. Attacked by conscience, some militiamen walked out. They could see the Christianity in the Lenape.

After the Lenape were told of the militia's vote, they requested time to prepare for death and spent the night praying and singing hymns. 

Despite the fact that these soldiers had witnessed the Indians praying and singing hymns, they still were eager to see them die.  The next morning on March 8, the militia brought the Lenape to the "killing houses," one for men and the other for women and children. The militia tied the Indians, stunned them with mallet blows to the head, and killed them with fatal scalping cuts. In  all, the militia murdered and scalped 28 men, 29 women, and 39 children. No Indians resisted.  Two Indian boys, one of whom had been scalped, survived to tell of the massacre. The corpses were piled in the mission buildings and the American militia burned the village down. They also burned the other abandoned Moravian villages nearby. One of those soldiers who opposed the killing of the Moravian Lenape was Obadiah Holmes, Jr. He wrote,

"one Nathan Rollins & brother [who] had had a father & uncle killed (ed., not by Lenape) took the lead in murdering the Indians, ...& Nathan Rollins had tomahawked nineteen of the poor Moravians, & after it was over he sat down & cried, & said it was no satisfaction for the loss of his father & uncle after all".

After slaughtering everyone, the militia now turned to greed.  They looted the village before burning it down. The plunder, which needed 80 horses to carry, included everything which the people had held: furs for trade, pewter, tea sets, and clothing. A few years later, Moravian missionary John Heckewelder, who had just heard, collected the remains of the Lenape and buried them in a mound on the southern side of the village.

Some Americans were outraged when they heard about all this, but most of the settlers on the frontier supported the American militia’s murderous action.  No criminal charges were ever filed, and the war rolled on. 

Our treatment of the Indians, in general, was a standing reproach of our “Christian” governments for nearly a century, and a blood-red blot upon our annals of history.  The kind of story like the Lenape never gets told in history classes in elementary or secondary schools.  It is the kind of story that should be told, to warn and admonish us of our prejudices and our ability to dehumanize men—a product of our sinful nature, and we can’t blame wartime, the ever-popular excuse.  The men who persecute Christians have a special place in hell.    

The Kingdom of God

What was John the Baptist’s first words?

Matthew 3:1-2: In those days John the Baptist came preaching in the wilderness of Judea, and saying, “Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand!”

What was the theme of Jesus’ first message? Was it man’s need for salvation? Was it God’s love for mankind? Was it the necessity to be born again? Was it that He would die as a ransom for us? No, we find the answer in Matthew 4:17:

From that time Jesus began to preach and to say, “Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand..”

Mark 1:14-15: Now after John was put in prison, Jesus came to Galilee, preaching the gospel of the kingdom of God, 15 and saying, “The time is fulfilled, and the kingdom of God is at hand. Repent, and believe in the gospel.”

The kingdom is the only thing that Jesus labeled as the gospel, which means “good news.”

For further on the importance of the kingdom, note what Jesus says in Luke 4:43, again early in His ministry:

But He said to them, “I must preach the kingdom of God to the other cities also, because for this purpose I have been sent.”

So what was the reason He was sent? For salvation? Yes, as many other verses point out. But it was also to set up the kingdom of God. It’s time, is it not, that we pay attention to this idea. After all, Jesus only talked once about the new birth; He mentioned His ransom for us only one time; there are only five or six passages in which Jesus used the word “salvation;” yet the kingdom of God is mentioned in the gospels nearly 100 times! Most of Jesus’ parables were about the kingdom. And as you saw above, Jesus said that the reason He was sent to earth was to preach about the kingdom. But do we hear this theme emphasized in the preaching of pastors today? No. All we hear is that Jesus’ primary purpose in coming to earth was to save us from our sin. Of course, that’s wonderfully important—but it still omits something vitally important. After all, wherever He went, He preached about the kingdom of God:

Matthew 4:23: And Jesus went about all Galilee, teaching in their synagogues, preaching the gospel of the kingdom, and healing all kinds of sickness and all kinds of disease among the people.

This is repeated in Matthew 9:35:

Then Jesus went about all the cities and villages, teaching in their synagogues, preaching the gospel of the kingdom, and healing every sickness and every disease among the people.

And again in Luke 9:11:

But when the multitudes knew it, they followed Him; and He received them and spoke to them about the kingdom of God, and healed those who had need of healing.

He also made it the second petition in the model prayer, the Lord’s Prayer in Matthew 6:

After this manner therefore pray ye: Our Father which art in heaven, Hallowed be thy name. Thy kingdom come…

That’s how high it ranks in the priorities of Jesus, and where it should rank in ours. Then what are we doing, ignoring this doctrine? The kingdom of God is almost totally missing from the gospel of today!

Now, you might argue that while Jesus was alive, He couldn’t say much about salvation through His death and resurrection—but surely, after these were completed, His disciples’ main theme was about that, right? Not the case. When Jesus commissioned His disciples, He specifically instructed them to preach about the kingdom.

Matthew 10:5-7: These twelve Jesus sent out and commanded them, saying: ….6. But go rather to the lost sheep of the house of Israel. 7 And as you go, preach, saying, ‘The kingdom of heaven is at hand.’

Luke 9:2: He sent them to preach the kingdom of God and to heal the sick

Luke 10:9: And heal the sick there, and say to them, ‘The kingdom of God has come near to you.’

In nearly every passage where Jesus gave preaching instruction to His disciples, He told them to preach about the kingdom. And they didn’t change the emphasis after He died and rose again.

Acts 8:12: But when they believed Philip as he preached the things concerning the kingdom of God and the name of Jesus Christ, both men and women were baptized

Acts 19:6-8: And when Paul had laid hands on them, the Holy Spirit came upon them, and they spoke with tongues and prophesied. 7 Now the men were about twelve in all. 8 And he went into the synagogue and spoke boldly for three months, reasoning and persuading concerning the things of the kingdom of God

Even at the end of Acts—when Paul is under house arrest in Rome, having written about finally giving his life for Christ, what is he still thinking about? Acts 28:23:

So when they had appointed him a day, many came to him at his lodging, to whom he explained and solemnly testified of the kingdom of God, persuading them concerning Jesus from both the Law of Moses and the Prophets, from morning till evening.

In Acts 28:30-31, we should ask, what did Paul emphasize for two whole years at the tail end of his ministry? The answer? The kingdom and Jesus:

Then Paul dwelt two years in his own rented house, and received all who came to him, 31 preaching the kingdom of God and teaching the things which concern the Lord Jesus Christ with all confidence, no one forbidding him.

As it was in Acts 8 above, these two verses have a dual emphasis in preaching: both Jesus Christ (and His salvation)—and the kingdom of God. The two go hand in hand. If you want Jesus as Savior, you need to accept His kingdom over your life too. Obviously, one of the main principles is:  He is the King in His kingdom, so we obey Him. Salvation is not the end of our religious effort; it is a means to an end—after we are saved, establishing our place in His kingdom should then be emphasized; what can we do to forward His kingdom? Notice carefully what Jesus said to Nicodemus:

John 3:3-5 (partial): Jesus answered and said to him, “Most assuredly, I say to you, unless one is born again, he cannot…enter the kingdom of God.

Being born again is not the end of our effort:  It is a means to another end. Our real purpose is not to gain salvation, but to live to the highest use in His kingdom, to please our King. The kingdom is an absolutely crucial aspect of the gospel. When we tell people about salvation and ignore the kingdom, we are not preaching the gospel. We’re only giving half of it. We can’t have the King apart from the kingdom. Preachers must also call people to become citizens of His kingdom.  And spell out our obligations.

So why is it that the gospel of the kingdom is not being preached? How did we miss this? We just don’t pay much attention to what the Scriptures really say anymore, I guess.

Well, now let’s talk about just what is the kingdom of God. All kingdoms have four components: (1) Ruler; (2) Subjects, or Citizens; (3) Domain, or the region the ruler has control; and (4) Laws. But God’s kingdom is sometimes different. God’s kingdom doesn’t have an earthly ruler—its ruler is Jesus Christ, who reigns from heaven. And unlike earthly kingdoms, who change rules, Jesus’ policies never change. They are spelled out in His infallible Word, the Bible. As to its subjects? The test, or method of determining who is a citizen in the kingdom of God is those who “bring forth the fruits thereof,” Matthew 21:43. What are the fruits? Holiness and praising God. The kingdom of God includes everyone IF they are bringing forth its fruits, if they are willing to gain in holiness. It excludes nobody—but those who exclude themselves by not bringing forth its fruits. To be heirs in this kingdom, we have to belong to Christ. We enter the kingdom through the new birth (see John 3). You can’t bring forth its fruits, you can’t be holy, without the help of the Holy Spirit, who is given to you at the new birth. It is His indwelling that brings forth fruit. See I Peter 2:9-10:

But you are a chosen generation, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, His own special people…that you may proclaim the praises of Him who called you out of darkness into His marvelous light; 10 who once were not a people but are now the people of God.

As to Domain: The kingdom of God’s subjects do not occupy a certain portion of the earth; they are interspersed among all the nations of the world.

But there are conflicts among His people—because we live under two kingdoms. You are a citizen in one of the kingdoms of the world, and you are a citizen in the kingdom of God. And since there are differences in their laws, those two kingdoms occasionally force a conflict, on occasion demanding of you two opposite actions at the same time. Of course, we are to follow our heavenly King; Jesus expects you to follow His laws, not the kingdom of darkness (Colossians 1:13). (That's a pretty stark comment on all the world's governments.)  This may mean persecution because many governments want you to respect them as your kingdom, and don't want you to be free to look elsewhere.

 Now you can’t avoid persecution by saying the kingdom is for the far future, or it is a spiritual kingdom, so I can ignore His commands. Luke 17:21 says the “kingdom of God is within you (KJV),” which some people translate as spiritual--but the phrase "within you" means “in the midst of you” (per Vine’s Expository Dictionary of New Testament Words), a huge difference of meaning. Instead of saying “within me spiritually,” it says the kingdom is operating NOW among God’s people.

I want to say more about this conflict between the two kingdoms in another blog. It’s important to keep in mind, as we think about this, that most of the people in the world (including the U.S.) are not citizens of God’s kingdom. Most people are not willing to be holy and sold out for Christ.  The people of the world cannot see the kingdom of God, and cannot understand our intolerance and refusal to keep up with the latest cultural trend. Jesus told Nicodemus, in John 3:3:

I say to you, unless one is born again, he cannot see the kingdom of God.

Colossians 1:13 says people are still in the kingdom of darkness. It also says we are NOW in the kingdom of God, if we’re saved and living for God—it’s not future:

He has delivered us from the power of darkness and conveyed us into the kingdom of the Son of His love

If we’re not living in His kingdom while we’re on earth, we’re not going to be there after we die. But most professing Christians don’t even know what the kingdom of God is. People equate it with “the institutional church,” with a certain political party, or even with a certain country. Those ideas limit what it is. Thinking about it makes you want to know what our King wants from us, especially as we possibly approach the last days, because Scripture says we can expect conflict, as I alluded above; and we must make each decision in those conflicts to advance the kingdom, and endure the persecutions to be in heaven when the time comes (II Timothy 2:12).

Keep in mind that salvation is not merely mental assent, but an active trust in Christ—it’s called “abiding in Christ.” Thereby we bear fruit. Knowing that we’re in His kingdom will help us to seek out and obey the King’s commandments, versus ignoring them, which goes on way too much today. Read John 15:1-6 or my blog on Initial vs Final Salvation. Following His commandments are necessary for final salvation, for an eternity in the right place—heaven.

Acknowledgement: David Bercot’s CD, “The Kingdom of God,” Scroll Publishing.