Amazing Grace – A Conversation with Some Mormon Teenagers

My friend Bill McKeever is the founder and director of Mormonism Research Ministries. It’s his birthday today (one of the big ones!) and so in his honour here’s some of his great work explaining the folly of trying to be perfect to some Mormon teenagers and, instead, pointing them to the sufficiency of Christ’s death and the Amazing Grace that it brings.

If you want a great summary of the key gospel issue at the heart of Mormonism then you could do a lot worse than this.

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  1. Gregory Colby

    Wow – this guy really knows his stuff! I loved the gentle, kind and respectful way he shared the gospel with them.

  2. Ralph Horner

    David, I got the impression that McKeever was ‘picking at straws’. I think the Mormon students were quite right. God looks at the heart/the will of a person so “trying” means following the will of conscience rather than the self-will and making the effort to move in the right direction. If someone is doing that it means their ‘heart is in the right place’. When worldly temptations and inherited weaknesses are dispensed with at the death of the physical body the person will follow their heart to heaven because their heart is looking to God rather than away from Him.

    Religion is all about life and the life choices one makes in response to the truths of the Word of God. We (being limited and finite) cannot be perfect (as God is) but we need only the faith of a grain of mustard seed to start the process of reformation and regeneration (i.e. to begin the process of allowing God to work through us rather than fighting against Him). It’s impossible to know if one is saved or not but it’s not really important to know and can actually be counter-productive because it can breed complacency and a sense of self-righteousness.

    1. David Ould

      unfortunately Ralph, truth isn’t detemined by what we want but by what the Scriptures say.
      The question is which scriptures we listen to.
      McKeever points out that if the Mormon scriptures are correct then the students need to totally “repent” (as the Mormons understand it) – anything less is not enough. This isn’t picking at straws, it’s simply pointing out what the Mormon scriptures actually say. If you think he’s read those scriptures wrong then point out to us how they are incorrect.

      As for your statement “It’s impossible to know if one is saved or not” I think I”ll go with the Apostles’ consistent preaching – holding out what Jesus has done and declaring:

      Acts 16:31 ย ย  They replied, โ€œBelieve in the Lord Jesus, and you will be saved

      You will be saved. No uncertainty there. The only way we can be uncertain is if (like Mormons) we look to our own works. When one looks to Jesus His work is perfect and complete and therefore so is our assurance.

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