2500 Viewpoint on Mormonism Shows

Viewpoint on Mormonism, the program that examines the teachings of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints from a biblical perspective. Viewpoint on Mormonism is sponsored by Mormonism Research Ministry. Since 1979, Mormonism Research Ministry has been dedicated to equipping the body of Christ with answers regarding the Christian faith in a manner that expresses gentleness and respect. And now your host for today's Viewpoint on Mormonism. So glad you could be with us for this edition of Viewpoint on Mormonism. I'm your host, Bill McKeever, founder and director of Mormonism Research Ministry, and with me today is Eric Johnson, my colleague at MRM. Well, this week marks a landmark for our show, Viewpoint on Mormonism, and we wanted to talk about that. So what is going on this week, Eric? Well, this week marks the 2,500th broadcast of Viewpoint on Mormonism, which we started in July of 2011, and we've been doing it for almost 10 years. And I just think it's amazing because I don't know if we thought we were going to last this long.

I know people often wonder, how do you come up with all that stuff? Well, thankfully, the LDS Church has given us a lot of written material that all you need do is know where to look, and certainly I think there is an endless supply of information out there that we can read and critique on the air. But this has become a major part of our outreach at Mormonism Research Ministry. In fact, this last year, 2020, as I think most people can testify, was a difficult time to do ministry. We virtually were shut down on the streets. We were not going to be speaking in churches because for a long time there, churches were not even meeting.

And it's still slowly, slowly coming back, but very slowly. And this allowed us to have an outlet to get our information to the people. So we are continuing in doing ministry and of course we do that through our website at mrm.org. We do it through our newsletter, Mormonism Research, but the radio ministry has been very important because we're able to get this information out to the masses and hopefully keep up on what's going on in Mormonism.

Of course, people can subscribe on iTunes and other platforms like that. You can go to our website, mrm.org slash podcast, and you can actually see the current episodes that we have. And then on our website, we also have a place where people can get an organized catalog of the past shows. And so we have well over 1,500 different shows that are available to people by just going to mrm.org slash viewpoint on Mormonism catalog, or there's a link on just the podcast site itself. And it's categorized so you can listen to shows on topics such as apologetics, Bible, blacks and race, Book of Mormon. We have book and movie reviews and other things like that. So anybody who wants to do research on a particular topic, they don't have to just rely on the shows that we've done for that week or the last week, but they can actually go in and hear shows from four or five, eight years ago that we have done.

And certainly they're timed, many of them. We oftentimes will take a look at current events in Mormonism as well as general conference addresses. But I think for many people who are wanting to do research, besides the articles we have on our website of mrm.org, we have literally hundreds and hundreds of different broadcasts that they can listen to, and they're short, 14 minutes. We might do a week, we might do five weeks worth of shows, and people can skim through those as much as they want to get the information they're looking for. I think one of the better compliments that we have received over the past decade is that our show is too short. And that's encouraging because that tends to show that we have left to you hanging and wanting more.

And it's not wanting to turn the show off before we've come to an end. And so we do thank you for those kind comments. But speaking of comments, we have received a lot of very positive and encouraging messages from our listeners. And we just thought we would read some of them just to let you hear what others have said. Some of these we've talked about in the past, but you may have forgotten them. And so let's go back and let's look at some of the statements that we have received from people. This one says just a word to let you know, I sure do enjoy your podcasts every day.

I look forward to starting my day with an mrm podcast. It was people just like you who helped me to see the light a little at a time. And I think that's important because we know that a lot of Latter Day Saints listen to this show. We know because of their email. Sometimes they commend us for what we say. Sometimes they criticize us for what we say.

We get that I understand. We get a lot of Latter Day Saints who write us and they'll try to bring out some things that they think we missed. It gives us an opportunity to engage with them and talk with them usually over email. But we do know that there are a lot of Latter Day Saints that are listening. We try to be respectful for that. As you see our opening line is we're trying to conduct ourselves in a manner that exhibits gentleness and respect. Now, sometimes a Mormon might not think that because we are saying things that may irritate them.

Don't confuse saying something that's truthful and might bother someone with being obnoxious and snarky. We certainly don't want to go that route. We want to present the information in a Christ honoring way. And I really do think that we've met that goal. One of the things you mentioned is that the LDS Church gives us much of our material through just what they say and what they do. And I want to say that we intend this show to be as cutting edge as possible. We're trying to keep up with the pulse of what Mormonism is about.

And I want to say that when we talk into these headsets, we are talking to, we know a variety of people. We're talking to committed Christians who want to know how to share their faith with their Latter-day Saint friends. So we do a lot of how to evangelize. We do a lot of those kinds of shows. But we also realize, as this letter tells us, that there are people who are LDS listening to us or who have left the church and maybe they haven't become Christians.

And we want to give them reasons, not only just to leave the LDS Church, but we want to show them that there is a God who loves them, that they should not throw the baby out with the bathwater just because Mormonism might not be true. So we're trying to be as sensitive as we can talking to these different audiences who are hearing us. I mean, somebody could just turn on the radio and we are on several different radio stations in four states.

And so we realized somebody could just turn us on in the middle of our broadcast. And so we're trying our best to make as much sense as possible throughout. And then the next day, if we're continuing a series, you do a very good job, I think, Bill, of summarizing what it is we're talking about.

So you didn't have to necessarily listen the previous day to be able to understand. So there's a lot of things going on when we put these shows together, but we want to make it educational for as many people as possible. Another person wrote, I just wanted to thank you personally for your ministry because it has played a huge role in convicting us and preparing us to witness two Mormons. We have had the opportunity to have several missionaries in our house many times over the past few years and your books and podcasts have been instrumental in preparing us. Again, I'm pleased to see that the information that we are putting forth on this show is having an effect like that. It's encouraging Christians to engage our Mormon counterparts and to give them the confidence to present what needs to be said in a given conversation. So I'm encouraged by that. Another person wrote, thanks for all your hard work.

The podcast is one of the highlights of my day. I pray that someday my family who are all in Mormonism will wake up to who Jesus really is and come out of Mormonism and to him. And certainly that's our prayer as well. We're not here just to argue for arguing sake. We want to present truths, biblical truths, as well as true statements in the context of Mormonism to present a case so that someone who is perhaps undecided could make a good decision regarding this religion as well as someone who's already in the religion to hopefully rethink the positions that they have. And I think too, what makes this show helpful is not only are there people who are in the Mormon church as well as those who have left the Mormon church, but those who have left the Mormon church and are wondering if they made the right decision. How many times, Eric, do we get emails from people or we've talked to people like this on the streets who have left the church and then because of peer pressure from relatives or friends, they are wondering, did I make the right decision? Because in Mormonism, it's kind of like this.

If you leave the church and let's say something goes wrong in your life, well, see, that's because you left the church. That's a horrible way of judging Mormonism to be sure, but that happens. And by hearing the things that we are saying, we hopefully will give them confidence that they made the right decision to leave. But as you said, Eric, our desire is not to just see them leave the Mormon church and go off into nothing. We want to see them come to a saving faith in Jesus Christ. I'm going to say that the reason a Christian would want to listen to this show is what this person has shown, that they know somebody who is a Latter-day Saint.

I don't see a reason to listen to our show to make that a regular habit. If you don't have any care for the LDS people, they might be relatives, but for some of us, we may not have relatives, but they might be friends and neighbors. And the places where we are airing are heavily LDS. And so we are trying to give our best information and keep people up to date so that they might be able to use that in their next witnessing encounter, if you really care about LDS people, because they are a very genuine and wonderful people that we want to be able to give them the truth. That's what the show is about, to try to help people like this to be able to maybe someday share with their family and maybe someday they will come to a saving relationship with Jesus Christ.

Another letter says this, hello, Bill and Eric, I enjoy your podcast. You two are a superb team in serving the cause of the biblical Christ. Thank you for your compassionate work.

I love that description because we certainly do want it to be compassionate. We do not want to come off at all as if we have any animosity towards the LDS people, because that certainly is not the case, though, unfortunately, that is an accusation in our culture today that comes out every once in a while. Though, when that happens, we like to challenge that assumption and ask them, well, what is it exactly that you heard that made you think that we don't have compassion for the LDS people? Rarely do we hear back from them after that question has been asked. Bill, us doing these broadcasts for so long could not be possible unless we have people who are supporting this ministry.

Mormonism Research Ministry, which was founded in 1979, we've been doing a lot of things to reach out to the LDS people. But I want to just give a shout out to so many of you who do financially support us, because we couldn't be on the air as long as we have been, and we could not have the time to do this unless we had the support we do. So I just want to make sure that everybody who is a financial supporter realizes that without people like you, we're not able to do this.

I think a lot of people within the Christian body realize, yes, the gospel of grace is free, but ministry can sometimes be expensive. And we do thank all those that are out there who like what we do and how we do it. We've used that expression a lot, and we are very thankful for the many of you out there who listen to this show and support Mormonism Research Ministry as part of your missionary giving. And we do hope for many more years of being on the air.

2,500. That is just a lot of shows that we've done. So again, we thank you for allowing us to be on the air. We hope that you will continue to pray for us and pray for all those that are listening to this show that many will find this saving relationship in Jesus Christ.

Thank you for listening. If you would like more information regarding Mormonism Research Ministry, we encourage you to visit our website at www.mrm.org where you can request our free newsletter, Mormonism Researched. We hope you will join us again as we look at another viewpoint on Mormonism. Looking for strategies that will help you engage in meaningful conversations with members of the Mormon Church? Well if so, take a look at Sharing the Good News with Mormons, a new book produced by Harvest House Publishers and edited by Mormonism Research Ministries Eric Johnson and Shawn McDowell. Sharing the Good News with Mormons includes 24 helpful essays from two dozen Christian apologists, scholars, and pastors. Pick up your copy at the Utah Lighthouse Bookstore or order directly from MRM.org.