Knock! Knock!
You open the door on a brisk Saturday morning and you see two well-dressed men smiling from ear to ear. They politely ask you if you have ever heard of Joseph Smith and the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints (LDS). How would you respond? Would you kindly ask them to leave, or would you invite them in to have a conversation? Do you even feel prepared to defend the faith that was once for all delivered to the saints? Or would their “Christianese” cause you to agree with what they are saying without even knowing they are saying something contrary to Orthodox Christianity? Well, this blog series is going to dive into the Missionary manual titled, "Preach my Gospel" so that you can be prepared if and when they go over their lesson plans at your humble abode.
After this blog series, you will be able to understand the mindset in which the LDS Missionary comes to your door. Secondly, you will be able to bridge the language barrier between the LDS Missionary and Orthodox Christianity, this will enable you to have a fruitful conversation with the Missionary.
Most importantly, as Christians, we need to effectively communicate the gospel. Meaning that when we scale the language barrier we need to tackle the issues that matter most (Who is God? Who is Jesus? and how does one obtain Peace with God?) while avoiding the never-ending circular conversations.
Not only do we need to be able to defend what God says in His Word but we also need to do it with gentleness, reverence, and respect (1 Peter 3:15). If we do not communicate the Gospel with love, we are nothing but a noisy gong (1 Corinthians 13:1).
“Understand that you are not speaking with a person who is trying to trick you, but a person made in the image of God who has been deceived.”
Understanding the culture/worldview of the Missionary is essential, you need to understand that you are not speaking with a person who is trying to trick you, but a person made in the image of God who has been deceived. They are sincere in their belief (though they may be sincerely wrong) who honestly thinks that they are doing the right thing.
The Missionary loves to use analogies to explain understand that there are three basic questions to life: Where did I come from? Why am I here? Where am I going? They will relate that at one point in time the truth to those three questions resembled a mirror and that mirror was able to be accessed freely, but since the “Great Apostasy” and through our own “Free Agency” the mirror has become shattered. The shattering of this mirror scattered fragmented pieces of truth around the globe refracting broken reflections of the principles and ordinances of the priesthood.
Looking through the Missionary’s eyes, you as the Investigator may not be certain of your beliefs and they are here to help you through the revelation of Joseph Smith to put these pieces of the mirror back together.
To them, you have lived your whole life being inquisitive, wanting to know the truth, whereas similarly, Joseph Smith lived the beginning of his life investigating, searching for the truth until he claims that Heavenly Father and Jesus Christ visited him in the woods and told him that the true church was not on Earth and that they chose him to restore it (we will deal with that later in the series). So it is imperative to understand that even coining you as the “Investigator” the Missionary creates a bond between you and their Prophet. Though unbeknown to most LDS Missionaries this is a psychological ploy that sets up the Investigator to think he has the objective ability to search for truth while being guided prayer and a helpful missionary to go through their lesson plan.
There are a total of six lesson plans in the "Preach my Gospel" handbook. These lesson plans are thoughtfully laid out to prepare the Investigator for the baptismal interview questions. According to Doctrine and Covenants (D&C) 20:37, baptism must take place along with the determination to serve until the end:
“And again, by way of commandment to the church concerning the manner of baptism—All those who humble themselves before God, and desire to be baptized, and come forth with broken hearts and contrite spirits, and witness before the church that they have truly repented of all their sins, and are willing to take upon them the name of Jesus Christ, having a determination to serve him to the end, and truly manifest by their works that they have received of the Spirit of Christ unto the remission of their sins, shall be received by baptism into his church.” (D&C, 20:37)
The D&C makes it clear that baptism is just the beginning of the road to salvation. True salvation takes endurance and determination to the organization called the LDS church. That is why there is preparation through these lesson plans. They want you to be aware of the commitment you are making by even preparing you for the questions that will be asked during your baptismal interview.
Example of baptismal interview questions are as follows:
Do you believe that God is our Eternal Father?
Do you believe that Jesus Christ is the Son of God, the Savior, and Redeemer of the World?
Do you believe that the Church and the gospel of Jesus Christ have been restored through the Prophet Joseph Smith?
Do you believe that [current Church President] is a prophet of God? What does this mean to you?
Are you willing to keep the Sabbath day holy, including partaking of the sacrament weekly and rendering service to fellow members?
The next post will dive right into Lesson One from the “Preach my Gospel” manual and we will deal specifically with the nature of the LDS god, spirit children and the restoration of the gospel; according to the LDS organization.
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