Witnessing to Mormons (Pt 2)

It is very common today for people to say "All religions are the same" or "All religions are talking about the same thing." Sadly, this is usually made by people who has no clue at all about what religions actually say about themselves.

When anyone says "All religions are the same" there actually has to be things that are the same, and that go beyond lowest common denominators. It doesn't count to say something like "All religions believe in a higher power so they're all the same."

First, all religions don't believe in God, but for religions to be the same their conception of God has to be the same, not to mention how they conceive of human beings, the human problem, the solution to our problem, what happens at death, if ethics exist and where they comes from, and the real kicker, who is Jesus?

This is where Mormonism comes in. LDS are pushing hard to be considered evangelicals (interesting, as they're doing this many who call themselves evangelical, like me, want to abandon being identified by that name), and "many laypeople in the Mormon church insist that the God they worship is the same God worshiped by millions of Christians" (23).

However, while we may have many things in common (e.g., pro-life, pro-heterosexual marriage, etc.) we cannot be considered the same, or even similar, just because we are both pro-life, or both "believe in God," or "believe in Jesus," or "honor the Bible," or seek to spread something called "the gospel."

This is what McKeever and Johnson mean when they write:

"If two people hope to consider themselves of the same faith, they need to agree on their definition of the Almighty God. If they cannot agree on this vital point, they would be deceiving themselves and others to say that their faiths are the same" (23).

There is NOTHING about our conceptions of the Bible, God, Jesus and the gospel that are similar, and these are NOT peripheral issues. This is the heart of Christianity. You disagree with these things, and you can call yourself an evangelical, but doing so is the same as me calling myself an iguana just because we both have superficial similarities (e.g., eyes, skin, nose, finger nails, legs, etc.).

This is critical when talking to Mormons. Make sure from the beginning that LDS realize we are not the same in any meaningful way. We have to start there, or evangelism cannot take place.

In fact, if we're the same, as they insist we are, do they really need to evangelize me then? It seems to me that if they really believed we were the same that they'd just leave Christians alone. They don't because they know we're not the same.