A post on the Pyromaniacs blog today caught my eye. The post, initially written by Phil Johnson in 2005, discusses a trend in Mormonism to “sell” itself as an evangelical Christian church. In 2005, Mormon theologian Robert L. Millet released a book entitled, A Different Jesus? The Christ of the Latter-day Saints where he argued that Mormonism is within the bounds of Christian orthodoxy.

What caught my eye was the last paragraph of Phil Johnson’s post that reads as follows:

Why is Dr. Millet nonetheless courting evangelical acceptance?

I have no way of knowing whether Dr. Millet’s meticulous attempt to reconcile Mormon doctrine with certain evangelical ideas and terminology reflects an authentic interest in better understanding the biblical principle of grace—or a carefully-crafted PR campaign to gain mainstream acceptance for Mormonism. I wish I could believe it is the former. It has all the earmarks of the latter. After all, a few other cults and “-isms” have already successfully mainstreamed themselves by simply appealing to the ever-broadening evangelical consensus. Most of the books that ever treated Seventh-Day Adventism as a cult are now deemed out of date and unsophisticated. Roman Catholicism has sought and received the evangelical imprimatur from dozens of key evangelical leaders in recent years. Even the Worldwide Church of God—a cult that was virtually a monument to one man’s ability to assimilate almost any heresy into one elaborate labyrinth of spiritual mischief—sought and received widespread evangelical acceptance by tweaking their beliefs and adopting evangelical terminology, but without ever formally renouncing their founder’s religion as false. After a decade-long public-relations campaign, the WWCOG has still not settled into a truly evangelical doctrinal position, but they have nevertheless found warm acceptance from the evangelical mainstream. Hey, if it worked for them, why shouldn’t the Mormons try it, too?
Source: Latter-Day Ecumenism

Thoughts?

Greg

Greg - 14 December 2009 05:40 PM

A post on the Pyromaniacs blog today caught my eye. The post, initially written by Phil Johnson in 2005, discusses a trend in Mormonism to “sell” itself as an evangelical Christian church. In 2005, Mormon theologian Robert L. Millet released a book entitled, A Different Jesus? The Christ of the Latter-day Saints where he argued that Mormonism is within the bounds of Christian orthodoxy.

What caught my eye was the last paragraph of Phil Johnson’s post that reads as follows:

Why is Dr. Millet nonetheless courting evangelical acceptance?

I have no way of knowing whether Dr. Millet’s meticulous attempt to reconcile Mormon doctrine with certain evangelical ideas and terminology reflects an authentic interest in better understanding the biblical principle of grace—or a carefully-crafted PR campaign to gain mainstream acceptance for Mormonism. I wish I could believe it is the former. It has all the earmarks of the latter. After all, a few other cults and “-isms” have already successfully mainstreamed themselves by simply appealing to the ever-broadening evangelical consensus. Most of the books that ever treated Seventh-Day Adventism as a cult are now deemed out of date and unsophisticated. Roman Catholicism has sought and received the evangelical imprimatur from dozens of key evangelical leaders in recent years. Even the Worldwide Church of God—a cult that was virtually a monument to one man’s ability to assimilate almost any heresy into one elaborate labyrinth of spiritual mischief—sought and received widespread evangelical acceptance by tweaking their beliefs and adopting evangelical terminology, but without ever formally renouncing their founder’s religion as false. After a decade-long public-relations campaign, the WWCOG has still not settled into a truly evangelical doctrinal position, but they have nevertheless found warm acceptance from the evangelical mainstream. Hey, if it worked for them, why shouldn’t the Mormons try it, too?Source: Latter-Day Ecumenism

Thoughts?

Greg

Very good post Greg.

This shows how easy the evangelical community is fooled by cult groups and fringe groups. Mormonism is trying to masquerade as Christianity.

However there are some big names in apologetics and Reformed pastors such as Kim Riddlebarger and Ken Samples who will not acknowledge SDA as a cult.  In fact their church meets in an SDA church on Sunday.  Can you imagine a Christian Reformed church meeting in an LDS church?

I remember when the Former Adventist Fellowship group went ‘ga-ga’ with excitement when the WWCG claimed to have accepted the New Covenant giving up Sabbatarianism and then claiming Trinitarianism and to have given up Armstrongism, but we found that it was not so true. Dale Ratzlaff was very proud that his book was instrumental in helping to change their belief structure. Mark Martin was excited about handing out DVDs from the WWCG, while at the same time claiming that he could not recommend people join the WWCG. The irony was interesting that at an FAF reunion, they were promoting the propaganda of another fringe cultic group.

Stan

Stan Ermshar - 14 December 2009 09:48 PM

Greg - 14 December 2009 05:40 PM

A post on the Pyromaniacs blog today caught my eye. The post, initially written by Phil Johnson in 2005, discusses a trend in Mormonism to “sell” itself as an evangelical Christian church. In 2005, Mormon theologian Robert L. Millet released a book entitled, A Different Jesus? The Christ of the Latter-day Saints where he argued that Mormonism is within the bounds of Christian orthodoxy.

What caught my eye was the last paragraph of Phil Johnson’s post that reads as follows:

Why is Dr. Millet nonetheless courting evangelical acceptance?

I have no way of knowing whether Dr. Millet’s meticulous attempt to reconcile Mormon doctrine with certain evangelical ideas and terminology reflects an authentic interest in better understanding the biblical principle of grace—or a carefully-crafted PR campaign to gain mainstream acceptance for Mormonism. I wish I could believe it is the former. It has all the earmarks of the latter. After all, a few other cults and “-isms” have already successfully mainstreamed themselves by simply appealing to the ever-broadening evangelical consensus. Most of the books that ever treated Seventh-Day Adventism as a cult are now deemed out of date and unsophisticated. Roman Catholicism has sought and received the evangelical imprimatur from dozens of key evangelical leaders in recent years. Even the Worldwide Church of God—a cult that was virtually a monument to one man’s ability to assimilate almost any heresy into one elaborate labyrinth of spiritual mischief—sought and received widespread evangelical acceptance by tweaking their beliefs and adopting evangelical terminology, but without ever formally renouncing their founder’s religion as false. After a decade-long public-relations campaign, the WWCOG has still not settled into a truly evangelical doctrinal position, but they have nevertheless found warm acceptance from the evangelical mainstream. Hey, if it worked for them, why shouldn’t the Mormons try it, too?Source: Latter-Day Ecumenism

Thoughts?

Greg

Very good post Greg.

This shows how easy the evangelical community is fooled by cult groups and fringe groups. Mormonism is trying to masquerade as Christianity.

However there are some big names in apologetics and Reformed pastors such as Kim Riddlebarger and Ken Samples who will not acknowledge SDA as a cult.

Stan,

Does the fact that Roman Catholicism has, as Phil Johnson said in the above quote, “received the evangelical imprimatur from dozens of key evangelical leaders in recent years” make them a Christian church? If not, why should Riddlebarger’s or Samples’ opinion make us come to that conclusion with regard to Adventism?

Jeremy

Here is another fascinating article, from Christianity Today, about how Evangelicals and Mormons are starting to come together: http://www.christianitytoday.com/ct/2009/november/11.23.html

As the above article documents, even the well-known Christian apologist Ravi Zacharias spoke at the Mormon Tabernacle in Salt Lake City in 2004, after Fuller Theological Seminary president Richard Mouw’s introduction in which he apologized to the Mormons:

He declared that “we evangelicals have often seriously misrepresented” Mormon beliefs and practices. “We have sinned against you,” he said.

And just this year:

LDS president Thomas S. Monson and his two counselors permitted Standing Together, an alliance of 90 Utah evangelical churches, to use the historic Salt Lake City Tabernacle for a September 13 revival meeting. Throngs of evangelicals and Mormons enjoyed gospel songs and prayed together.

This quote from the article is also interesting and is reminiscent of Adventism:

Mouw is not alone in perceiving that Millet and other “neo-orthodox” thinkers at BYU have been migrating closer to belief in salvation by grace alone apart from human works. However, McKeever contends that Millet and other BYU professors may “want to sound evangelical” but that they carry no doctrinal authority, and that traditional LDS beliefs still emanate from headquarters.

Jeremy

P.S. Also interesting are the poll results at the end of the article. Only 45% of Evangelical Protestants believe that Mormons are not Christian.

Stan,

Phil Johnson is lamenting the fact that evangelical Christians are extending the ecumenical hand of fellowship with the “isms” that the previous generation of Christians had identified as being outside the bounds of orthodoxy. He sees Adventists as being more successful than Mormons in branding themselves as being within the mainstream, but he includes them both as coming from the outside. His quote about the WWCG could easily apply to evangelical or liberal Adventism: “Even the Worldwide Church of God—a cult that was virtually a monument to one man’s ability to assimilate almost any heresy into one elaborate labyrinth of spiritual mischief—sought and received widespread evangelical acceptance by tweaking their beliefs and adopting evangelical terminology, but without ever formally renouncing their founder’s religion as false.” How many times have we seen Adventists be quick to adopt the evangelical Christian label but slow to deny any of what their church has taught, particularly when it comes to Ellen White? The church still has not repudiated any of the error introduced by Ellen White and they continue to sell her books.

Regarding the point of Reformed churches worshiping in a Mormon church, I think the reason we don’t see more of this is because the meetings of the respective groups occur on the same day. In the case of Adventism, I don’t think a Reformed congregation’s use of their building constitutes an endorsement of what happens there on another day of the week. I happened to touch on this subject with an Orthodox Presbyterian Church minister who claimed he would have no problem using a Mormon building for his congregation’s worship service because the building does not constitute the church, the people and God’s presence do.

Greg