Witnessing to Mormons

 

 

Keith Green once said, during one of his concerts, that the Christian alive today is 

responsible for reaching this generation with the Gospel of Jesus Christ. He was right. 

It is up to us to reach this generation. It is our generation. If we don’t do it who will?

Living in Boise I find myself surrounded by Mormons. One thing I have learned about 

them is that they are not the enemy. Therefore, to approach them in anger trying to 

correct their doctrine is counter productive. No one responds well to an attack.

In Ephesians 4:15 Paul talks about “speaking the truth in love.” That is the way we 

need to present the gospel to Mormons. We need to remember that as Mormons they

 are victims of an oppressive religious system. They need truth, but the will not 

receive truth if it is not accompanied with love, patience, and understanding. We must 

not water down the truth, but neither must we use it as a club. It must be given with 

love or it will not be received. 

That being true, is there any difference between sharing the gospel with a Mormon 

and the person who holds no beliefs? Yes, there is a difference. That difference is 

terminology. The Mormon uses many of the same terminology as the Christian, yet 

with differing definitions. It in incumbent upon the Christian to understand those 

differences if he/she wishes to witness to a Mormon. I will share some of those 

differences in definitions in a separate post, but for now understand that Christian 

terminology with Christian definition is foreign to the average Mormon. In James R. 

Spencer’s book, Have You Witnessed To A Mormon Lately?, Mr. Spencer quotes 

Walter Martin in a conversation he had with Dr. Martin. Dr. Martin said, The problem is 

that Mormonism has altered the thinking process of Mormons in the area of religion! A

 Mormon can think very rationally about his job, what clothes to wear, and things like

 that, but when you push the button on religion he stops thinking and give you what 

he has been taught.

The Mormon is so entrenched in the dogma of the church that he typically cannot 

approach the question of religion reasonably. They are told what to think and fear 

thinking otherwise even when it defies reason.

I went on MormonChat.org last night to test this out. The missionary I chatted with 

was named Sandy. I asked the question, “The bible says that Jesus was to be born in

 Bethlehem while the Book of Mormon say He was to be born in Jerusalem. Can you 

explain why this is?”

She answered that Bethlehem is only 5 miles from Jerusalem and the people to 

whom the prophecy was written had not known of Bethlehem so there was no need to

 be specific. Besides, she added, Bethlehem is in the “district” of Jerusalem so it is 

technically alright to say Jerusalem instead of Bethlehem. 

You can easily see the problem here. Prophesy is from God and very specific. God 

knows where Bethlehem is and would (and in the Bible did) say the Christ would be 

born in Bethlehem, but because Sandy was taught that the LDS Church is correct and 

cannot be questioned she cannot see beyond that - and she dare not for fear of 

church discipline. Walter Martin put it this was in Spencer’s book, Talking about 

spiritual things to Mormons is like trying to describe a rainbow to a blind man. You are 

talking about a rainbow to a guy who doesn’t know what color is.”

So where do we start when we want to witness to Mormons? We start with love. We 

are not out to win a battle, we are out to plant seeds. Seeds won’t grow to mature 

plants which produce fruit unless the ground if fertile. The ground must be tilled. It 

cannot be tilled without the right equipment. Therefore we must equip ourselves with 

an understanding of the Mormon thought process and the Mormon understanding of 

spiritual terminology. We then need to patiently explain what we mean by the 

terminology we use, making sure that the Mormon understands what we mean. 

With all witnessing, including to Mormons, we need to remember that our job is not to 

save people, it is to bring the message of salvation in love, understanding, and 

patience to people. Add prayer to that and your job in the salvation of that person is 

done. It is the job of the Holy Spirit to convince, convict, and save. We are seed 

planters....God causes the growth.