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July 30, 2019 4:43 am
One member is examining the teachings of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints from a biblical perspective viewpoint when 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 to be with us for this additional viewpoint on Mormonism. I'm your host Bill McKeever Felder director Mormonism research ministry with me today is Eric Johnson. My colleague at MRM yesterday. We began looking at a conference message that was given by the 17th president of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints, Russell M.
Nelson.
It was titled, come follow me and it was given at the end of the Sunday morning session in general conference on April 7, 2019. He starts off his talk by relating the story of talking to an individual police officer who was involved in evacuating a lot of people from the Paradise Fire Which Took Pl. in November of 2018. It was a terrible fire and wiped out completely. The town of Paradise and as we mentioned yesterday Eric's grandparents when they were alive lived in paradise. Eric is very familiar with the area, but he talks about this young police officer who was evacuating a lot of these family members to safety. During this tragic situation and he asked himself, though, where is my family and that is the question that Russell M. Nelson is going to use to segue into this important doctrine of Mormonism dealing with being sealed to your family, fraternity goes on in his talk, to say the account of John's concern for his family and John was the name of this young police officer that he mentions has prompted me to speak today with those of you who may ask when approaching the end of your mortal life where is my family and that coming day when you will complete your mortal probation and enter the spirit world. You will be brought face to face with that heart-wrenching question, where is my family now and yesterday show. We explained that in Mormonism the doctrine of mortal probation is basically this human life here on earth but in Mormonism.
This is the time that you are to prepare to meet God. According to the book of Mormon, and you're not to procrastinate your repentance. If you procrastinate the day of your repentance even until death. The book of Mormon says the devil has sealed you here is now in that kind of a case you cannot hope that you will be with your family throughout eternity because being with your family throughout eternity involves being exalted into the celestial kingdom of God. The top level of Mormon heaven, but he also uses another expression. He talks about when you complete your mortal probation and enter the spirit world from gospel fundamentals 2002, page 196, when a person dies who is accepted the gospel and been a faithful follower of Jesus, that person spirit goes to paradise. The other places called spirit prison. Three kinds of people will be there. There will be those who are wicked in this life. Those who live goodbyes, but did not accept the gospel and those who never had the opportunity to hear the gospel not notice what Mr. Nelson is done he knows exactly what paradise is in the context of Mormon theology and so he's using the name of this town that was wiped out by a terrible fire to segue his stories here. The quite clever if you asked me but I think a lot of people are going to resonate with what he has to say. If you're Latter Day Saints. But here's the point. We says when your mortal probation is over and you enter the spirit world. Well, as Eric is just mentioned.
When a person dies who is accepted the gospel and has been a faithful follower of Jesus, that person spirit goes to paradise as we are mentioning yesterday though when we ask Latter Day Saints on the streets if they have the assurance that when they die they done everything they're supposed to do in their mortal probation and they have a hope of going to this paradise, many of them are not sure then it goes on in this citation from gospel fundamentals. Page 196 and Eric read the other places called spirit prison.
Three kinds of people will be there. There will be those who were wicked in this life.
Those who live good lives, but did not accept the gospel and those who never had the opportunity to hear the gospel.
Now think about that.
A lot of people assume that Mormonism is a type of universalism that everyone is going to receive the same hereafter. That's not really true though Mormonism teaches a kind of universalism. It's not quite the same as most people understand everyone is going to be saved in some level of glory. But in those levels of glory. You don't receive the same promises you don't get the same benefits. Mormons who are faithful to the cause are hoping to get into the celestial kingdom because that's where they're going to be with their family. But when it talks about those who did not accept the gospel but lived good lives they're going to have an opportunity to hear the gospel in the spirit prison as it's called, and when someone is baptized on their behalf. They will be visited by spirit missionaries as they been called by Mormon leaders. They will hear the gospel according to Mormonism, which is not the New Testament gospel and they will have an opportunity in that spirit prison to receive and believe the message that they were just told, but even then that individual is not going to gain celestial exultation. If you reject Mormonism during this lifetime and embrace it in spirit prison after you die the best you can hope for is the terrestrial kingdom. The second level of Mormon heaven. The second level of Mormon heaven does not guarantee you to be with your family and for many Latter Day Saints. They seem to want to ignore that thinking that somehow everything is going to be okay but the Mormon God is just going to forget all the threats that he made in his Scriptures, the doctrine and covenants. For instance, and everything will be fine, but according to Joseph Fielding Smith who I cited in yesterday show this is in his book, doctrines of salvation, volume 2, page 183. He said second chance leads to terrestrial kingdom. Moreover, he said. We learned that those who rejected the gospel when it was offered them.
In ancient times, but afterwords accepted the testimony of Jesus in the spirit world. When it was delivered to them and who were honorable men on the earth are assigned to the terrestrial glory not the celestial so you can see why this concept of a mortal probation becomes so important to the Latter Day Saints because it is in this life that they are supposed to meet all those requirements and as we mentioned yesterday it was Joseph Fielding Smith who said the requirement is to keep all the commandments.
So what Russell Nelson is going to do here.
He's going to use the anxiety of this young police officer who, while evacuating other families does not know where his family is and he's going to turn that around to make a spiritual message out of it, asking his audience.
Where is your family is your family have the security of knowing that they're all going to be together and say in the next life saved. Quote" in the Mormon vernacular, so I'm sure every Latter Day Saints.
Listening to this conference message knows exactly what Russell M. Nelson is talking about but it makes me wonder.
Eric how many were asking themselves if those of the requirements that I need to keep in my family needs to keep in order for us to be together in the next life. How is that going to be if I'm not doing everything I'm supposed to be doing and as we know, in talking to many Latter Day Saints one-on-one.
Rarely do you ever find a Mormon who has the confidence to know that they are doing everything that the church demands of them.
It's amazing to me how the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints has elevated the family which we is Protestant evangelical Christians do believe in having good families.
But they've elevated to almost like a godlike status that families are almost worship and we have an article on our website did Jesus believe families are forever.
It comes from our Mormonism research which is our free bimonthly newsletter that we had. This was published in the March April 2019 addition and in this article we talked about how Jesus never says anything similar to what the leaders have said about families and the importance of them that's found in MRM.org/families are forever with hyphens in between there. That's how the Latter Day Saints are conditioned that they want to be with their families that they want to be able to have eternal increase and do exactly has heavenly father has done but that's certainly not what Jesus taught and it certainly isn't what Paul taught. It certainly is and what the Bible is about me, just add to what you said because this might come across as very harsh to most Latter Day Saints who might be listening to this, but let me just be very frank. You can take something that is good, such as family and you can make an idol. Three. Can you can do that with anything that's quote unquote good in this life and turn it into an idol and I think you're exactly right. When I asked Latter Day Saints what they're looking forward to in the next life. In the first answer out of their mouth is to be with my family. You have to ask yourself will admit what would an evangelical say that question I would assume that most evangelical Christians, if asked that question. It would not be so much to be with their family, though I'm sure all of us want to be with her families. It certainly will want all of our family members to be saved and to join us in the presence of our Savior, but that wouldn't be the answer wouldn't be family, it would be to be with Jesus. He is the one we worship.
He's the one that we adore. So it makes you wonder who is the Mormon really worshiping and who were they really adoring when the answer to that question comes out family and again I want to stress that we need to believe in having good families Bible does talk about that but I horse it writes yes money. A lot of people say money is the root of all evil.
And no, that's not the case.
The Bible says that the love of money is the root of all evil monies a very important factor in the way that we live our lives in being able to live but it when you look again at this article that I'm talking about about families being together forever and how Jesus does not say anything about that in Luke 1426. What you did was something like this when he says if anyone comes to me and does not hate his own father and mother and wife and children and brothers and sisters, yes, and even his own life he cannot be my disciple and what Jesus is saying is I'm not saying you're supposed to go out and hate them. But at the same time your love for me when compared with your love for those who are around you ought to be as if you hate it. If you compare that with how much you love God will. Jesus often used hyperbole to make a point.
And that's exactly what he's doing there. He's using an extreme word in this case, hate to bring out a point that you cannot have a love for worldly objects. And let's be serious.
That's what her families are they there worldly object. We are all in this world and we are all objects you cannot have love for those objects and those individuals and have it surpass your love for Christ himself. This is why I found so offensive. The statement made by Jeffrey R. Holland when he said heaven wouldn't be heaven without his family to me as an evangelical that is a blasphemous statement shows us this man has no true relationship with the Jesus of the Bible, though he might drop his name whenever he gives a conference talk tomorrow were going to continue our look at this article. Come follow me by Pres. Russell M. Nelson, thank you for listening you would like to patiently guarding his research ministry. We encourage you to visit our website www.mrm.org you can request a free newsletter Mormonism research. We hope you join us again as we look at another viewpoint is