Melchizidek Priesthood, Mormonism

The Melchezidek Priesthood and Hebrews

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In my Sunday School class we are currently studying the book of Hebrews.  While I was involved in the LDS Church (especially while I was an investigator) the book of Hebrews was often referenced as support for the doctrine of The Melchezidek Priesthood and having earthly high priests serve in this priesthood. Over the past several years my view of what Hebrews is actually saying about The Melchezidek Priesthood and earthly high priests has dramatically changed.  It is as if the Lord has opened my eyes and I can really see what He is saying now… and it is nothing like what the LDS Church teaches.

Chapter 8 is full of so much information… verses 1 & 2 say:

“The point of what we are saying is this: We do have such a high priest, who sat down at the right hand of the throne of the Majesty in heaven, and who serves in the sanctuary, the true tabernacle set up by the Lord, not by man.”

This verse tells us 3 things:

1)  “The point of what we are saying is this…”  The writer of Hebrews is telling us here that EVERYTHING he has been saying up to this point leads to the ONE CRUCIAL POINT he is about to share.  In other words, we should really listen!!

2)  We have a High Priest now who has sat down at the right hand of The Father.  Why does He sit?  Because His work is done.  Unlike an earthly high priest who had to go into the Holy of Holies year after year to offer animal sacrifices, this high priest has finished His work and is able to sit down in a place of honor, having done a perfect work which is now complete.

3)  He serves in a PERFECT SANCTUARY/TRUE TABERNACLE and not in a man made temple.  The need for earthly temples is now gone!!  Wow… how profound is that??!!

So, who is this one High Priest he is referencing?  Verse 28 in the preceding chapter tells us:

“For the law appoints as high priests men who are weak; but the oath, which came after the law, appointed the Son, who has been made perfect forever.”

Our High Priest is Jesus Christ!! 

What is interesting is according to the law there can be only one high priest at a time.  Hebrews says nothing to change this position.  In fact, it actually confirms this by telling us that the earthly high priest could not fulfill the law and that we now have a perfect High Priest in Jesus Christ who will remain our High Priest forever.  We no longer need earthly high priests!  We have Jesus Christ as our High Priest who serves us in the Perfect Sanctuary/Tabernacle in Heaven!!

All praise be to my God, Savior, Lord and High Priest Jesus Christ!

Darrell

About the blog

Blog Break

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To our readers,

I will be unable to blog for about a week, but I will be back to it after that.  We really appreciate your faithful reading of the blog, and we know how irritating it is for a blog to go silent for long periods of time.  That is not the case here!  Darrell will continue in my absence and I look forward to getting back to the blog in a week or so.

Thanks again for your support!!
Bill

Mormonism, YHWH

YHWH and Mormonism

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One of my favorite verses in the Bible is Isaiah 43: 10-11. It reads:

“You are my witnesses” declares the Lord, “and my servant whom I have chosen, so that you may know and believe me and understand that I am he. Before me no god was formed , nor will there be one after me. I, even I, am the Lord, and apart from me there is no savior.”

This scripture helped me when I was struggling with my belief in Mormonism.  Reading and pondering upon it pretty much solidified for me that Mormonism is false.  Let me explain why.

In these verses “The Lord” is actually the modern translation for YHWH or Yahweh.  The Israelites were told by God that this was His name.  In fact, the Israelites considered this name so sacred that they refused to speak it out loud. 

In modern English Yahweh has been translated as Jehovah.  When Mormons go to the temple they learn that God the Father’s name is Elohim and Jesus’ name is Jehovah/Yahweh.  So, why is this a big deal?  Well, this teaching CONTRADICTS Isaiah 43: 10 -11.  Let’s look at these verses again…

Verse 10:  “Before me no god was formed , nor will there be one after me.”

This verse tells us 3 important things about God.

1)  That God is the one speaking

2)  There are no Gods before Him

3)  There will be no Gods after Him

 So, the next logical question might be, “Who is this God?”  Verse 11 answers that question…

“I, even I am YAHWEH , and apart from me there is no savior.” 

Here we learn two more things about this God.

1)  His name is Yahweh/Jehovah.

2)  He is our Savior.

This knowledge creates a few problems for Mormons. 

1)  Contrary to verse 11 Mormonism teaches that God the Father’s name is Elohim not Yahweh.    

2)  Contrary to verse 10 Mormonism teaches that Yahweh is NOT the only God.  He is actually the spirit born son of another God, Elohim.

3)  In Mormonism since Yahweh is a spiritually born God there was a God prior to Him… Elohim.  This violates verse 10.

4)  Contrary to verse 10 Mormonism teaches that there will be God’s after Yahweh.   Mormonism teaches that men can progress to godhood.

5)  Verse 11 teaches us that our God, Yahweh/Jehovah, is also our  Savior.  Under Mormonism, Elohim is God the Father but Yahweh/Jehovah, his spirit born son, a separate God, is our Savior.  BIG DIFFERENCE!!

These points show that the Mormon teaching on the nature of God does not match the teachings of the Bible.  Mormonism teaches “another Jesus” and is “another gospel” (2 Corinthians 11:4, Galations 1:6-9).  It has been so liberating for me to learn that my God is Yahweh, Jesus Christ, and that He is the One and Only true God!!  He is my Savior and I will praise Him forever.

Darrell

Abortion

Pro-Life Commercial Featuring Obama (sort of)

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Check out this short TV commercial (thanks to my friend John for tipping me off) ready to be aired by CatholicVote.com.  Those who argue that we should consider aborting children who might be born into “bad” homes might want to think again (and yes, many in the pro-choice community make this argument).  Of course, numerous other examples of outstanding and successful people who “should” have been aborted due to their mothers’ circumstances exist, but this one really hits home.

General Apologetics

Are Christians Thinking About Christianity?

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No, not many of them.  I suspect that this just mirrors the fact that most people aren’t thinking about anything.  But it shouldn’t be that way for those who call themselves followers of Christ.  He called us to love God with our mind .  Read these quotes below and see if any of them apply to you or someone you know.  If so, what are you going to do about it?  (Hint: reading this blog might be a great start!)

“We are having a revival of feelings but not of the knowledge of God.  The church today is more guided by feelings than by convictions.  We value enthusiasm more than informed commitment.” – 1980 Gallup Poll on religion

“We live in what may be the most anti-intellectual period in the history of western civilization.”  – R. C. Sproul

“Ignorance is the mother, not of devotion, but of heresy.”  – Puritan Cotton Mather

“For many, religion is identified by subjective feelings, sincere motives, personal piety, and blind faith.”  – J. P. Moreland

“I’m always encouraged to use my intellect in how I approach my vocation, select a house, or learn to use a computer.  But within the sphere of my private, spiritual life of faith, it is my heart, and my heart alone, that operates.”  – J. P. Moreland

“Most Christians would rather die than think – in fact they do.”  – Bertrand Russell

Mormonism, Prayer

Thee, Thou, Thine and Thus in Prayer?

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One of the teachings of Mormonism is that one should use reverence in prayer to Heavenly Father. It is taught that when you pray you should not use the language of our day.  Rather you should always use Thee, Thou, Thine and Thus. If you address God in common language (you, me, them, us, etc.) you are NOT being reverent.

I simply ask, why? What justification is there to support this position?  Is Old Modern English really MORE REVERENT?  If so, when the early Christians prayed in Greek, Hebrew or Aramaic were they being IRREVERENT?

Don’t get me wrong… I fully believe that one should approach God with awe and reverence. He is the ONE and ONLY TRUE God and He does deserve respect. However, why do we need to use Early Modern English to show respect? I believe that the only reason this is taught within Mormonism is this was the language used in the King James version of the Bible. Joseph Smith taught that the King James Bible was the “most correct” version of the Bible on the earth. In fact, it is the only version used by the Mormon Church today… despite the fact that we have MUCH BETTER translations available.

When my wife and I left the LDS Church one of the things we dropped almost instantaneously was the use of Early Modern English in our prayers. We began to address God in Modern English. We both feel that this has contributed greatly in our communication with God. We no longer have to struggle for words that simply do not feel natural.  We are able to address God in a natural manner and are able to concentrate on what we want to say to Him and not how we say it.  We believe that we can now approach Him as we really are and can communicate with Him reverently in the language of our day.

God has told us in the Bible that He already knows the groanings of our hearts.  In fact, He knows them before even we know them.  I really don’t think He cares what language we use when addressing Him.

Darrell

Atheism, General Apologetics

Response to YouTube Atheist

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In a recent post, I asked our readers to watch the video of an atheist gentleman who addressed his video to “all Christians.”  In the video, he attempts to convince Christians that they are wrong to believe in the Christian God and Bible.

I wanted to make a few comments about what he said.

First, he badly misunderstands religious truth claims.  In his video he argues that since there are multitudes of religions in the world, that the chance that Christianity is the true religion is extremely small.  The problem with this argument is that it assumes that all ideas have an equal chance of being true.  But that is clearly not so.  The way we determine whether an idea is true is we assess the evidence for it. 

Religions make claims about the world that we can test.  If religion A makes a claim about the world that is false, we can safely say that religion A is not true, or at least that part of it isn’t.  For example, some religions make historical claims that are seriously lacking any evidence and, in fact, contradict known historical facts.  Those religions should be judged false.

Besides, his argument boomerangs back on him, because atheism is only one of multitudes of options, so his chance of being right is just as small as the Christian, by his own flawed logic.

He next compares God to unicorns.  He claims that there is no evidence for God or unicorns, and therefore he doesn’t need any faith to not believe in God or unicorns.  A couple things could be said. 

First, nobody argues that unicorns are real, except for a few kooks, whereas north of 95% of all the people that have ever lived believed in a god or gods.  Surely the atheist has to explain why that is.

Second, there are numerous evidences for the existence of God captured in books that fill up libraries.  Anybody heard of C. S. Lewis?  He may not be convinced of these evidences, but to say that there are none offered is false.  I am not aware of huge libraries filled with books offering evidence for unicorns.

Third, if it is so obvious that there is no evidence for God, then why do so many people not see it?  And really smart people?  I have an electrical engineering degree from GA Tech, and I think there is a difference between unicorns and God.  Unicorns are just concepts that do not exist in reality, but God exists in reality.  Why?  What is wrong with me?  How did YouTube guy figure it out?  He needs to consider these questions.

But perhaps the saddest thing about this video is that he doesn’t understand Christianity.  In a period of a few minutes, he mangles the gospel, he misunderstands the use of metaphor in the Bible, and he misinterprets the doctrine of hell (the Bible never teaches that God literally burns people alive for eternity; it is a figure of speech). 

Based on these gross errors, I draw the conclusion that he really hasn’t studied Christianity, as he says at the beginning of the video.

Dinesh D’Souza coined a term for people who believe in a childish form of Christianity.  He calls them crayon Christians.  These are people who never grow in their understanding of the faith, and are stuck in a childish belief system.  That describes our YouTube atheist.  His Christian beliefs never advanced beyond the crayon stage.

I pray that some day he puts the crayons aside.

Essential Beliefs, Mormonism, Theology, Trinity

Is the Trinity Biblical?

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Many non-Christian groups who accept some form of the New Testament – Muslims, Mormons, and Jehovah’s Witnesses – claim that the Christian doctrine of the Trinity is false.  One of the arguments often used is that the concept of the Trinity cannot be found in Scripture, so the doctrine cannot be true.

This argument, however, will not fly.  The argument for the tri-unity of God is straightforward and well grounded in the biblical text.

The first premise of the argument is that God is one.  We know this from verses like Deut. 6:4 and 1 Cor. 8:4.

The second premise is that three persons – the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit – are all called God.

Concerning the Father, we read verses such as John 6:27 and Rom. 1:7.

Concerning the Son, we read a verse such as John 8:58, where Jesus uses an Old Testament name of God, “I am,” to refer to Himself.  We also read of instances where Jesus does things that only God would do, such as forgiving someone’s sins in Mark 2:5-7.

Concerning the Holy Spirit, we read a verse like Acts 5:3-4, where the Holy Spirit is called God.

Therefore, if the Bible teaches that God is one (and it does) and the Bible teaches that the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit are all God (and it does), then the doctrine of the Trinity is established.  There are three persons in one God.  This is what Christians affirm and non-Christians deny.

Now I have to quickly state that there are far more verses than the ones I mentioned above that establish the doctrine of the Trinity.  I am only providing a tiny sampling in order to refute the claim that the Trinity is not based on the Bible.  It is biblical, but please don’t think that my evidence above is exhaustive.  If you want to dig deeper, then this study of the Trinity should more than satisfy you.

Religion, Salvation

Poll Says American Christians Don't Believe Jesus is the Only Way

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My response to this article might surprise some of you.

The article discusses a recent report which indicates that 37% of evangelicals rejected the claim that Jesus is the only way to heaven.  52% of American Christians agreed that religions other than Christianity can lead to eternal life.  But what does this data mean?  Should we moan and groan that Christians don’t understand the teachings of their own faith?  Maybe, but I think there’s another side to the story.

There is no doubt, from the Bible, that absolutely nobody gets to heaven without Christ’s death and resurrection, both of which were necessary to reconcile man with God.  The tougher question is this:  how is Christ’s sacrifice applied to people who never hear the gospel?

I, for one, do not like this line of questioning in a survey or poll because it puts the Christian in an awkward position.  The requirement that every person, whether they’ve heard the gospel or not, put their faith in Christ is a nuanced issue that requires some explanation and does not lend itself to multiple choice answers.  It’s like being asked to describe God in five words or less.  It can’t be done!

The truth is that we aren’t given specific knowledge of which other individuals are going to heaven and which aren’t because we don’t know other people’s hearts and minds.  God doesn’t tell us.  Many Christians act as if we do know, but we just don’t.

The New Testament teaches us that we should believe in Jesus for eternal life, and it says this over and over and over again (read the book of John if you don’t believe me).  So we have this positive command, to believe in Jesus, and it is a clear and plain teaching that the biblical authors wanted to make sure we understood.  Another clear teaching is that those who have heard of Christ and rejected Him are in eternal jeopardy.  We can be sure of these truths.

The New Testament, on the other hand, does not spend a lot of time talking about followers of other world religions who have never heard  of the authentic biblical Jesus.   Theologians have tried to explain what happens to those who never hear, but none of these proposals warrant dogmatism because of the scant biblical evidence.

I know that God wants people to believe in Christ.  I know that those who reject Christ will be separated from God.  The Bible teaches those things clearly, but I don’t know, for sure, what happens when a person is unable to hear or respond to the gospel of Christ.

I believe that many Christians know John 14:6 and they know Romans 10:9, but some pollster calls them and puts them on the spot: “Is Jesus the only way to heaven?”  Polls don’t allow for nuanced answers.  They demand black and white answers, and frankly, I can sympathize with those being asked this difficult question, most of whom are not theologians who study this issue every day.

A much better question to put to Christians would be: “Does the Bible teach that believing in Jesus leads to eternal life?”  I think the vast majority of Christians would answer “yes.”

A follow-up question could be: “Should Christians tell others about Jesus so that they, too, can have eternal life?”  Again, I think a great percentage would say “yes.”

Let’s focus on what we know.

Atheism, General Apologetics

What Would You Say to Him?

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YouTube has an enormous number of videos dedicated to Christianity, atheism, and every other kind of worldview.  I want to post some of these videos from time to time and ask you for your response to these videos.

The first of these, found below, is from an atheist who raises a handful of issues that he thinks should render belief in the Christian God as nonsensical.  Watch the video and comment in this blog post on any issues he raised that interested you. 

As you’re watching, ask yourself some questions.  What are his arguments?  Does he provide good reasons for his positions?  Does he really understand Christianity?  If you are a Christian, is there anything he said that reflects one of your doubts?  What would you say to him if you met him for a cup of coffee?

I look forward to your responses and will plan on making a few comments myself later on.

A Christian Apologetics Blog