But we have to love and respect these people as we love ourselves no matter what. Which is also the only way we’ll ever have any success at shifting them away from their false beliefs. Lost people need Jesus, not hate. And Jesus is love, not hate, so protesting Mormons (etc., etc.) with hateful energy is not bringing Jesus to them.
Hello Readers, hope all’s well. Today I present another End Times post.
Today’s post continues directly from the previous post on Friday. That post is not an End Times post, but today’s is because it ties into some End Times topics.
In the End Times, there’s deception everywhere. I’ve written about that a few times. So tons of deception of course means that there are tons of deceived people in our world today. They’re following false Spiritual beliefs that will lead them to hell. And they often create a painful living hell for them too while they’re still here on earth.
But anyway, they’re not following Christianity. So how should we deal with them?? We should rebuke these sinners, right?? And since they’re in such grievous error, we don’t need to be polite about it, right?? The more shocking tactics we use to protest them and intimidate them the better, right??
Wrong.
Well, we do have a duty to lovingly rebuke sinners. But this means doing it in a way that’s non-judgmental, not condescending, and above all, loving. Any hateful rebukes or protests against people of other religions and faiths—even false ones—go against God’s Will and are a sin.
Remember the topic of the previous post. Whatever we do, we need to do it with love. And that covers everything we do, yes, everything.
So when we deal with deceived people who follow false beliefs and etc., we need to treat them with love and respect. And that’s the specific topic for today. So let’s get right into it.
Interview with an Ex-Mormon
I thought about this topic—how we have to rebuke the sinner with love and respect—when I saw this interview on Melissa Dougherty’s YouTube channel. I know I link to her videos often, but I think it’s worth it because her videos are good. I suggest you watch this one if you can, although it is over an hour long.
In the interview, ex-Mormon Dan Tate says how Christians used to protest at his Mormon temple. They would carry hateful signs that said hurtful things, and be nasty to any Mormon who talked to them. Dan said that a Christian who talked to him with respect was the one who brought him to Christianity. (He had already left Mormonism by the time he met this respectful Christian, but had not become a Christian himself yet.) He says that if Christians want to get people out of the Mormon church and bring them to Christ, they need to speak to Mormons with love and respect.
I recommend watching the video if you can, because he reveals a lot of things about Mormonism that create Empathy and pity for these lost, deceived people.
We learn a little about Mormon beliefs, and how they follow the teachings of four books rather than the Bible alone. But what surprised me from listening to this interview was how Mormons have no understanding of God’s Grace.
Mormons more or less believe they have to act perfectly all the time, which traps them in an extreme and unBiblical works-based theology that’s even worse than Catholicism. When a Mormon sins they go through terrible guilt, shame, and inner condemnation when that doesn’t need to be the case. Everyone is a sinner (Romans 3:23), but if we confess our sins to Jesus and REPENT! of them He is Faithful and Just to Forgive us (1 John 1:9).
After hearing that, I knew that I should pity the Mormons more than anything. They’re trapped in a works-based theological hell on earth, terrified of making any mistakes and offending God. Of course I want to rail at them for following four books instead of the Bible alone. Of course I want to yell at them for confusing the Trinity and worshiping more than one God as a result. But ….
But I realized that I have to pity the Mormons first, that’s what God really wants me to do. Once I have pity (Empathy) for them, only then could I think about rebuking them for their sinful theology and trying to bring them to the Truth of Christianity.
Because there was something else Dan said in this interview that resonated with me. He said something like (paraphrasing): “Hating the Mormons is easy. It’s not hard to make signs and protest. Talking to them with love and respect is hard.” And that’s so true. Christianity is a Spiritual path that calls us to not do things the easy way. It calls us to deny the urges of our sinful flesh nature, which wants to do things the easy way. As I mentioned in the previous post, hating those who have different beliefs than us is taking the easy route. The hard part is talking to them with respect and treating them with love as Jesus Himself commanded us to.
Hating those who have different beliefs than us is taking the easy route. The hard part is talking to them with respect and treating them with love as Jesus Himself commanded us to. There’s nothing in our Bible that allows us to hate; hate is demonic and it’s a fatal sin. The anger at the false beliefs of Mormons and others is understandable. But we have to love and respect these people as we love ourselves no matter what. Which is also the only way we’ll ever have any success at shifting them away from their false beliefs. Lost people need Jesus, not hate. And Jesus is love, not hate, so protesting Mormons (etc., etc.) with hateful energy is not bringing Jesus to them.
I’m glad I listened to this interview with Dan Tate, ex-Mormon. I used to have only anger toward Mormons, because they follow false beliefs while claiming to be Christian. It’s that second part that gets me angry. I would have had much less anger toward the Mormons if they didn’t falsely claim to be Christians. I don’t have and never had that kind of anger towards Buddhists, Hindus, or Muslims, etc., because none of them make any claim to being Christians!
I know I shouldn’t have had that anger, but I will be the first to admit I’m imperfect. As a follower of Christ, fake claims of Christianity can really make me angry (it’s a failure of mine that I need to work on). But having learned some more now, I understand the Mormons aren’t making malicious fake claims of being Christian, they’re making deceived and deluded claims of being Christian.
I can have pity for Mormons now, since I’ve learned more about the deception they’re under. I didn’t know that they have no understanding of God’s Grace, for example. Think hard about living life without God’s Grace. Then tell me how we can or should have any other emotion for the Mormons besides pity?? We must pity them, not protest them.
And speaking of protesting them, how does that help anything? That doesn’t get people to leave the Mormon church, it only gets them more entrenched in their community for mutual support and protection. And anytime a Mormon thinks about Christianity, they’ll recall memories of Christians yelling at them and holding hateful signs. Why would any Mormon convert to Christianity if those are their memories of who Christians are?
Protesting the Mormon church (and others) is not a Christian thing to do. We’re supposed to do as we would have done to us. Do we want people to line up with protest signs and yell at us as we enter our church on Sunday? No, we wouldn’t want that, so we must not do it to any others.
Anytime we preach, evangelize, or rebuke the sinner, we must do it with love and respect. That’s the tough route, because it’s easy to judge. It’s easy to hate. It’s tough to show love instead.
Dealing with the Deceived
This topic is very relevant during the End Times, and becomes more relevant every day. Deception is everywhere in these End Times, which means countless people fall for a demonic deception every day. They may be people we know, friends and family, or only strangers we happen to encounter. Whoever they are, we need to be prepared to interact with people lost in deception, whether it’s New Age or Mormonism or anything else.
Judging New Agers (and etc.) will never work. (And Jesus already told us never to judge anyway). We will never pull someone out of the New Age deception or anything else by being nasty and talking down to them. Hate, ridicule, and condescension will never win anybody over to our side. Only love and respect can do that.
It’s like how Dan the ex-Mormon said it in his interview. We need to talk to New Agers (etc.) with nothing but love and respect. That doesn’t mean we have to respect their false, demonically-inspired beliefs. No, what it means is we have to love and respect them as people God loves; His children, created in His image. We don’t have to respect Mormon or New Age (etc.) beliefs, but we have to respect the fact that these people have those beliefs, if you follow what I’m saying there.
I’m concerned that I’m not explaining this as best I can. So let me say this: Being antagonistic to people will get us nowhere. When people’s belief systems are confronted with opposition, they stand in their beliefs and feel them even stronger. Antagonizing people in any way—scorn, ridicule, protests, and more—will never convince them to leave false religions.
Instead of taking a confrontational approach, we’ll make much better progress by taking time to get to know these people. If we learn their story, and learn why they subscribe to New Age (etc.) beliefs, we may get some insight into why they left or never tried Christianity. We may learn what they’re really searching for through their beliefs, things like inner peace, healing, and so on. Then we can share with them how all that and more can be found in Christianity—except it’s the real thing, not an imitation!
We need to share the Truth of our Faith with these people. But we also need to listen to them and understand where they’re coming from. If we evangelize to them without doing that, they’ll see us as just another Christian who only preaches and never listens to what they have to say. Everyone wants to feel heard. So we need to hear people out and listen to where they’re coming from, even if we don’t accept their false beliefs. This is showing respect.
Yes, we are called to stand firm in the Truth of our Faith and resist deception. Yes, we are called to lovingly rebuke the sinner and inform deceived people of their false beliefs. But never forget that we are also called to love our neighbor and our enemy as we love ourselves and God. Aggressive and judgmental behaviors are not loving. It doesn’t matter if we’re talking to New Agers, Scientologists, or WHOEVER else. We must show them love and respect.
After all, showing them disrespect won’t work anyways!!
Do it with Love, or Don’t Do it
This all goes back to 1 Corinthians 13 and the previous post’s topic. Whatever we do, we have to do it with love. If we don’t have love, our good works are meaningless. Without love, we’re nothing.
(1) If I speak in tongues of human beings and of angels but I don’t have love, I’m a clanging gong or a clashing cymbal. (2) If I have the gift of prophecy and I know all the mysteries and everything else, and if I have such complete faith that I can move mountains but I don’t have love, I’m nothing. (3) If I give away everything that I have and hand over my own body to feel good about what I’ve done but I don’t have love, I receive no benefit whatsoever.
1 Corinthians 13:1-3 (CEB)
Our good works are not accepted by God, without love. God is love (1 John 4:8), and if we don’t have love then we don’t know God!!
(8) The person who doesn’t love does not know God, because God is love.
1 John 4:8 (CEB)
So when we interact with people who’ve been deceived and follow false Spiritual beliefs, no matter who they are or what they believe, we must deal with them with love and respect. We must remember that God loves them too, after all. Jesus taught us not to judge. And nothing in our Bible allows us to hate. Hatred is sin.
And hatred is also easy. When we deal with someone who’s not “on our team,” our first instinct is to get into a confrontational, ‘us vs. them’ dynamic. But this is wrong, and it’s also the easy way out. This reaching for the easy way out is an instinct of our sinful flesh nature. Christianity calls on us to rise above that, be Spiritual, and do things the hard way.
Remember what Dan the ex-Mormon said in his interview. It’s easy to hate, it’s easy to protest Mormons (etc.). But the Christian who succeeded in getting him away from Mormonism was the one who showed him love and respect. That’s how we need to be when we rebuke the sin of following false beliefs.
Let’s all remember that the easy way isn’t worth it. If we don’t deal with everyone with love, then we’re disobeying Jesus’ two Commandments and everything we do is meaningless. To love is to take the harder route, but the payoff is better than every difficulty we have to face.
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Until next time, be strong and do good!
Your new best friend in Christ,
99:9
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