I’m a Mormon, and Didn’t Even Know It!
Saturday, March 3rd, 2007
ome of my regular readers may remember an interesting discussion we had here last September regarding the essentials of Christianity. One of those posts carried a tongue-in-cheek title of “But What About Those Mormons?” The basic gist of that post and other posts was that we often seek to define Christianity by who or what our definition excludes.
The reason I brought up the particular topic of Mormons was because of some comments on a post prior to that one where some expressed concern that the “short list” of things I felt needed to be agreed upon for fellowship was sufficiently short that it “would include Mormons as Christians.” This sentiment seemed to indicate that the desire on the part of some is to begin with a presupposition of who’s “in” and who’s “out” and then find what those who are “in” agree on and make that the basis for salvation.
Well, with that in mind, I wanted to share with my readers a comment that was recently made to me. A family that Christy and I have gotten to know over the past few months came over to our house for dinner last night. We had a great time! They are a very sweet couple who have adorable identical twin toddler boys (each of which I consistently called by the other’s name through the whole evening!).
After dinner, the husband and I (I won’t reveal their names here since I did not ask their permission to do so) talked about spiritual topics. I knew prior to the time together that this family is part of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints, aka the Mormon Church. He was gracious enough to allow me to pepper him with questions and to share some of my own thoughts. It was a delightful conversation.
As we talked, and I shared some of the things that I have been mulling over for the last several years (many of which I’ve mused about here on this blog), he made a very interesting comment. He said, “If I didn’t know prior to this conversation, from the things that you are saying about God and the Bible, etc., I would think that you were a very good Mormon.”
(Insert pause here to allow my readers time to go remove my blog from their links, pray for my salvation, and mourn over the loss of their good friend…) 
No, seriously. I have to tell you that this comment took me quite by surprise. I wanted to share it here (I got his permission to do so) because I wanted to illustrate a point that I have been mulling over all day long now. It is the point that I tried to make last fall in the aforementioned post.
We can be so quick to write off entire groups of people because of what we think they believe. But I found in conversation last night that there are an awful lot of points of agreement. Some of my readers may disagree quite strongly, and I respect that.
Do I believe that Mormonism has all the answers? No, I don’t. And I was quite up front with my guest that I was not asking questions with the intent of converting to Mormonism. But at the same time, I would have to ask, is there any denomination, world religion, or belief system that has all the answers? I don’t think so.
One of the things I found out about Mormonism last night that I admire is that they respect truth wherever it is found. Is this not something that I, as a non-Mormon, can affirm? If truth comes from God — indeed, Jesus said that He is the truth — then truth is valid, even if it is found in some source other than what we perceive to be a “safe” source. Does Paul not say in Romans 1 that even creation speaks truth about God?
Another thing that came out of our discussion last night is the fact that each one of us is responsible for trusting God for ourselves, and seeking the truth that comes from God within our own heart. We can’t ride on the coattails of some other person, teacher, or leader. This, I believe, is consistent with Scripture (i.e., the Bereans searching out Scripture to verify Paul’s message, our instructions to weigh prophecy, test spirits, God’s instructions to Israel to test the words of a prophet, etc.).
Some of my readers might not understand why I would think that it was a good thing to be told that I sounded like a good Mormon. But I’ll tell you why I actually took that as a positive thing. That shows me that there are many, many points of agreement between us that could have been missed if I just wrote him off as “just a Mormon”. And I, for one, am glad I took the time to look for those points of agreement without jumping to conclusions.
In the same way that I desire not to write someone off because of a group they’re associated with, I likewise do not take last night’s conversation to lead me to a conclusion that all within Mormonism are saved. But then, I don’t operate on the assumption that all within the Baptist camp, or Methodist, or Presbyterian, etc. are saved, either! In other words, salvation is something which each individual must receive themselves. And we should engage in fellowship on that basis.
As for the fruit I have seen in my friends’ lives, and the conversation I had last night, I came away more convinced than ever that they are my brother and sister in Christ. And when I said that, my dear friend responded with, “And we would say the same about you.”
Until next time,
steve 
