Gospel Topics Chapter 1 Blomberg Part 1

Viewpoint on Mormonism, the program that examines the teachings of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints from a Biblical perspective. 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. Eric, thank you so much for joining us today. I'm 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. Eric, thank you for joining us today, and with me today is Eric Johnson, my colleague at MRM.

Eric, thank you for joining us today, and with me today is Eric Johnson, my colleague at MRM. The first essay that is covered in the book deals with a question that you would think would be first and foremost, and that is, are Mormons Christian? Of course, when you talk to a Latter-day Saint, they will be quick to tell you that they, in fact, are Christian. I've talked to ex-Mormons who tell me that when they were younger and in the LDS Church, they would usually say they weren't Christians.

And I've talked about that many times on this show. I think the reason why they would make that distinction is they would not want you to assume that they were Christian. They would not want you to assume that their version of Christianity really had much to do with their Christianity. Well, in this chapter, written by Dr. Craig Blomberg, and we should mention that Craig Blomberg is a professor at Denver Seminary.

He was engaged in dialogues with Latter-day Saints for a number of years. He even mentions that on page 34 of the book. I have to say, Eric, in reading this chapter, the way Dr. Blomberg writes, sometimes, at least for me, was very confusing.

How was it for you? I agree with you completely. Dr. Blomberg is a scholar. There's no doubt he's a New Testament scholar. He's the only representative in the evangelical Christian community who has contributed a chapter to the 13 chapters in this book, LDS Gospel Topics Series. I just want to say upfront, and we're going to talk about this chapter all week, it was confusing at times, and it was, I have to admit, disappointing, some of the things that he said. Well, let's go back to the beginning of his article, because he does talk about what he thinks are some disappointing aspects when it comes to the critique of the doctrines and history of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. He mentions on page 28 the coming forth of the film, The Godmakers. He calls it a scaremongering, sensationalizing, and at times simply inaccurate portrayal of the Mormon faith. My assessment of the film, there were certainly some things that I wish would have been said better.

But for the most part, it was pretty accurate, and a lot of it contained testimonies of people who were in the LDS Church and had come out of the LDS Church. But then he goes on to criticize Dr. Walter Martin. You can get the impression very quickly that Dr. Blomberg is probably not a real fan of Walter Martin, even though Walter Martin was a huge influence when it came to the subject of the cults. You have to understand, with people like Blomberg and others like Richard Mao, they don't like the phrase counter-cult.

They always use it as a pejorative. And what he does concerning Dr. Walter Martin, and this is where we get right into the confusion, because I have read some of these paragraphs over and over and over again, wondering, am I misunderstanding something here? Is he being complimentary or is he being pejorative? Well, let's read what he has to say.

He says, in the 1980s, this was the era of Walter Martin's books. This is why I'm kind of confused as to what he's trying to get across here. When he says, at least he did not.

Now, that sounds almost complimentary. But then he goes on to say, to distinguish much between what was official LDS doctrine and what was unofficial folklore or semi-official teachings of respected LDS authorities. Is he saying that Dr. Martin was very clear in distinguishing the difference between these or is he saying he clouded the issue? Because one of the common arguments that I have heard people say when it comes to work such as Martin's or even our own is they will say things like, well, you present information as if this is all official. Let me just respond to that charge. No, we don't.

We certainly don't do that. In fact, I have a presentation that I've given at numerous churches dealing with what is official doctrine and how to recognize what we can use as a good source for LDS teaching, as opposed to subjects or resources that might not be as good as others. So I'm not really sure what he's saying here.

I guess what I'm saying is I'm probably going to have to assume that this is not meant to be flattering. And when he says much between what was official LDS doctrine, and then he mentions the standard works, the four written canonized standard works, I'm confused on that because later in the book, he seems to give a lot of credence to some of the scholars and apostles who have spoken at general conference and taking their words. And it almost seems like sometimes he's taking what they've said and restating it in a way that makes it sound like it's more Christian than what it really is.

And I think that's a problem because he doesn't follow what he's saying here because he goes beyond just what the standard work says. On the next page, on page 29, he says, but once anyone could set up a website, a blog, or respond to others who published legitimate or illegitimate reports, the quality control over what many people believe to be true plummeted. Every year saw the amount of information added to the World Wide Web increase, but every year saw the amount of misinformation skyrocket as well.

Now, I don't think I would disagree with that. Naturally, when you start putting millions and millions of people in a public forum, such as the internet, you can expect that there's probably going to be information that isn't accurate. I don't know if that really takes away from the many that are posting that are being accurate. And as we talked about last week, Bill, these Gospel Topics essays probably would have never been created had it not been for the internet because the information the church was not officially teaching its people was out there, and so the church had to respond. So I think the Gospel Topics essays, which is ironic because that's what this book is covering, the different LDS Gospel Topics essays that were written between 2013 and 2015. Going down that same page, page 29, Dr. Blomberg writes, It almost sounds like it's poisoning the well with that statement, doesn't it?

Because obviously everything that's negative about us can't be true, it has to be inaccurate. Well, let's move on on page 35 of the book. Dr. Blomberg says the LDS Gospel Topics essay, Our Mormons Christian, begins by affirming the majority of what the typical believer faithful to the historic roots of Christianity holds dear. Mormons, we are told, worship God the Eternal Father in the name of Jesus Christ. Now, he does say Mormons, we are told, worship God the Eternal Father in the name of Jesus Christ. Now, taking that by itself, though, we would ask, what do they mean when they say they worship God the Eternal Father in the name of Jesus Christ? Now, in the chapter, Dr. Blomberg is going to delve a little bit deeper, but again, sometimes he says some things, and in this particular case, you might wonder, well, is he saying that when the LDS articles of faith states that they worship God the Eternal Father in the name of Jesus Christ, that that's really what we hold dear? Because the way they define those words, I would not hold dear those definitions.

So right there, I'm having a problem. And I think a lot of Bible-believing Christians who understand how important it is to define your terms, I would assume they would probably question that statement as well. Because, let's be serious, Mormons really do not worship God the Eternal Father because Elohim, the God of Mormonism, was once a man.

There's no way he could have been God the Eternal Father if he was a human at one time. So definitely, we would have a problem there. But on page 36, there's a lot of information here that I think we need to look at. On the top of page 36, Blomberg points out the three major differences between Mormons and Evangelical Christians, and so here are the three points that he makes. Number one, Mormons do not accept the creeds and confessions of post-New Testament Christianity. Number two, they, referring to the Mormons, do not descend from any one of the three lines of historical Christianity, Eastern Orthodoxy, Roman Catholicism, or Protestantism. And finally, number three, Scripture for the LDS includes not just the Bible, but the Book of Mormon, the Doctrine and Covenants, and the Pearl of Great Price. But he points out, on page 37, that there are some things that are missing from this list of things that are important between Mormons and Christians, such as salvation by grace through faith, talking about the Jesus of Mormonism, the Trinity being different, the Mormon Restoration as far as the Great Apostasy, and also the LDS expanded canon and lack of importance of the Bible and LDS thought. Completely missed, and those are good points that he made. Yeah, I would say that those probably should have been included in this essay, and Dr. Blomberg is basically hinting that if they were to ever revise this essay, that they would include some of those points. But what might shock you is sometimes Dr. Blomberg gives us the impression that he thinks that when they delve into these topics, the case for the LDS Church being Christian becomes better.

And I don't know if we would agree with that. . Looking for a book on Mormonism from a Christian perspective? Or do you have questions about the history or doctrines of the LDS Church? Bill McKeever and Eric Johnson are once again volunteering at the Utah Lighthouse Bookstore and would be glad to speak to you on Saturdays from 1 to 5 p.m. And say hi to Bill or Eric.