Two Mormon Missionaries

Planting seeds of truth outside of a Mormon church

[howardedward]

I am a christian, but that was just poorly said and confrontational, filled with pride.

[btheben]

Your disrespect for the missionaries beliefs and inconsiderate behavior cannot be justified by gaslighting them into thinking they dont respect your beliefs. I think that just because they may not accept your beliefs as their own does not mean that they disagree with your right to practice what you believe.

[Dempsey]

Bullying some teenage girls over what they believe is not very Christian.

[CosmicTuxedo]

One manipulated person speaking to other manipulated people. Its quite incredible to see.

[jjfranco]

I wish you had more respect for what they believe - Shame on you for what you are doing to these young sister

[DaremoDaremo]

Oh, thank you kind soul for showing me the light. Finally, someone who gets it. You are my new prophet. Please show me the way to the promised land of a bulletproof paradigm of truth.

[bluehedgehog]

God bless the Sister missionaries of the church of Jesus Christ of latter-day saints

[ReginaldGuivarra]

People are entitled to believe any thing they want, even if it is not true. These two ladies are real women. The interviewer is a total bully.

[TacShooter]

"Hell" What does the NORSE (Viking) goddess of the underworld have to do with either a Hebrew or Greek belief system? Furthermore, neither Sheol nor Hades are places of eternal fiery torment of souls. This is but one example of how Christianity relies heavily upon its own "traditions and commandments of men".

[baigish]

I'm sure you convinced no one. This needs to be done by a trusted Mormon to be heard by them, OR they need to have an emotional catastrophe where they start to question everything. I find people who try to "dunk on" others in public, to be repellant. I watched for 4 minutes. I want 4 minutes of my life back.

"They don't even know what to say when you tell them those things" Yeah, they do know what to say. They say "What a smug Asshole!". At least they were right about one thing that day.

[Revbone]

Exmormon former missionary here, I served in Atlanta in the late 90s, we were CONSTANTLY bombarded with hateful rhetoric like this - all it did was make me a liberal atheist...

[rickdavis]

The message was rough and the delivery rougher. Let them tell you what they believe instead of you telling them what they believe because you don't know what they believe. What you know is what the church teaches and those are not always the same thing. These girls are young--milk before meat--and may have no idea what you are telling them.

A good example would a catholic who attends the catholic church but doesn't partake in the blasphemous mass, or believe in transubstantiation, praying to Mary or the Saints, confession, and so on. Maybe they just like stained glass and vestments. There are catholics like that.

[MrSlayerfan]

I'm atheist and it can vary on what it means to be atheist as much as what a person thinks it means to be a Christian.

[Στοπιοδικαιο]

I respect your right to do what you were doing and support you in exercising your rights. Exchange of ideas is good, you should try it.

[severachiok]

See what this guy is saying. He is trying to be God. I have high respect for this mormon missionaries. Let God do his judgement not us. Human beings born not perfect.

[russellmackinnon]

That interviewer is even more delusional than those missionaries. While I do think the whole Mormon thing is a patent species of nonsense at least I admire and respect the LDS missionaries for what they're doing out there.

[TacShooter]

I read the Watchtower's "New World Translation" while serving my mission in Duchesne, Utah. It helped me see that Pauline Christianity didn't line up with Mormon doctrine. However, Pauline Christianity also doesn't line up with Jamesian Christianity or with the Hebrew Tanakh (so-called "Old Testament"). Mormonism's belief in the importance of works lines up with their belief that they are actual Israelites.

[rongwaltney]

I am a Christian with extended family who are LDS. I began studying their faith 38 years ago. I'd like to offer a few observations about this video and the responses to it.

I agree that asking the LDS what they believe, rather than telling them what they believe, is the better approach to bringing a particular doctrinal or historical LDS teaching up in a conversation. Those who have never been LDS CAN know what any one person has been officially taught by leaders of the church by studying what they/it teaches in church curriculum publications, general conference talks, books written by its leaders, text books on its religion used by students at its church owned schools like BYU, etc. The non-LDS person CAN know what an LDS is supposed to believe but their witnessing to the LDS is better served by not to assuming anything about what any one LDS believes without asking first. State an official teaching and then ask if the LDS if he/she does or doesn't agree with it. Or ask the question " DId you know that..." or "Would it trouble you to learn that..." Asking questions if a good way to invite a person into a conversation, to get them thinking, and if done respectfully, and lead to conversation that's both civil and productive.

The responses to the video are critical of the interviewer's methodology. They state that he is disrespectful, inconsiderate, confrontational, unconvincing, not to be trusted, a bully, browbeating, mean-spirited, delusional, a sad man, horrible and attacking. Not a single response below asks the question "Is what the man claiming to be true actually true? Did Joseph and Brigham actually say what this man claims they said?" Instead, all deflect to the questioner's demeanor or methods, rather than to assess the truthfulness of his claims. This, by the way, is similar to the way the Jewish spiritual leaders responded to the person of Jesus and his ministry - that Jesus was disrespectful, inconsiderate, confrontational, etc. Their response lead them to crucify him on a Cross only later, for some of them, to realize that they had never actually considered whether his claims to be their Messiah were true or not. The LDS are so very much like these Jewish leaders, especially like the Judaizers who later followed Paul around teaching that Gentiles must convert to Judaism and follow the law (wrongfully adding law to grace in the gospel just as the LDS do today) in order to be "true" followers of Jesus.

The predominant issue raised by the responses centers around the man's questionable lack of respect for these young missionaries and the beliefs of their church. I would only mention here that the LDS Church UNQUESTIONABLY does not respect the teachings of biblical Christianity or of biblical Christians. If these two young ladies know and believe the First Vision to be true, as surely they must, then neither do they. The LDS Church teaches that all Christian churches were in a state of total apostasy and that the true church, via the First Vision, had to be restored to the world. Jesus Christ is alleged to have told Joseph Smith in the First Vision that all the denominations were wrong, their creeds an abomination in His sight, their professors corrupt, and that non-LDS Christianity teaches the doctrines of men as though they are the doctrines of God. How can the LDS honestly claim to have any respect for the teachings of the Christian church or for Christians themselves when their Jesus himself holds both in contempt??? The LDS "respect" Christianity outside of the LDS Church only to the extent that it does so disingenuously (another word for deceitfully) and even then only when doing so serves its/their own purposes.

The ultimate question is "Do members of the LDS Church represent a group of fellow Christians or do they represent a mission field for the non-LDS Christian church around the world?" Based on my study, the LDS represent a mission field albeit a most difficult one to work in. Unfortunately, whether you like the man in this video or not, there is a great need for Christians who care enough about the lost status of the LDS people before God to enter the mission field where this man works. The need is great for Christians willing to devote the time and effort necessary to lead the LDS to salvation by faith alone in Christ Jesus.

Finally, It is easy to criticize this man for the way he plants seeds. Better to learn from him, to pray for him, and then to join him in his efforts. Surely some of you who have responded below are ready and willing to do so yoursleves. To you I say join up and help him, or shut up and get out of his way.

[Burningolivepodcast]

I love Mormons they are so sweet but it's with intent most of the time

[colehamilton]

I am so sorry--this was far too mean-spirited to be useful to the Kingdom.