Saints Alive in Jesus

5 Minutes With a Mason

Ed Decker

I was talking to Mason a while back. He is in The Blue Lodge, which is the lower level, encompassing the first three levels of Masonry, so he’s really in the lower level. He told me he was a Christian.

I said, "Do you love the Lord Jesus Christ?"

He answered, "Yes, of course I do. There is nothing in Masonry that would offend Jesus I said, "Are you sure there is nothing that you do in Masonry that would be offensive to Jesus?"

He said, "Ed, nothing that I do in the Blue Lodge would ever offend the Lord Jesus Christ."

"Do you love the Lord, "I asked?

"Of course I do!"

"Do you believe the Word of God?"

"YES, of course I do!"

"Do you live the Word of God?”

"YES, well, at least I do my best!"

"Well then, if you love the Lord Jesus Christ, then you'll do what he says and you will not do what he says not to do. So how can you be a Mason?"

"What are you talking about?"

I said, "Well, Jesus himself says to swear no oath. Let your yes be yes and your no, no. He said anything more come of evil."

He looked at me for a long minute and finally responded, "Yeah, but that's, you know, symbolic."

I said, "I'm sorry, but it’s not symbolic. It’s the Word of God."

“You need to repent,” I added.  He Did

That's the simplest, most direct answer to the lodges. As a Christians, we are not to swear any oath. So we don't swear oaths. We must let our yes be yes and our no, no.

Ed’s Five Minutes with a Mormon and Jehovah’s Witness..

I received this email a while back and responded with the following.

Hope it can help you as well.

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Dear Ed.. I want to be a strong witness for Jesus, but when the Mormon Missionaries or the Jehovah witnesses   show up at my door I go into a spiritual panic and freeze.  How can I handle these false teachers quickly and effectively?

Ed: First, study up on their basic doctrine..
pick 3  of the grosser errors and get a quick Biblical response.
Make it work in 5 minutes

Do Not Raise Your Voice!

5 Minutes With a Mormon

Before you start

Mormons trained up in a lifetime of 2 minute talks.
Short attention spans

Each Mormon may have faith anchored on a different LDS Doctrine

They have a Mindset that they are the ‘teachers of truths’
They are Gnostics. Not receptive to being
‘Taught” by one of lesser knowledge and authority

You must phrase remarks as questions to be really heard.

ONE

The Restoration

Can you Help me understand why the need for a restoration?

It would seem that Jesus /Apostles failed?

Jesus said he was establishing a Church
and that even the gates of hell could not prevail against it.

Doesn’t it Seem like it worked?
2000 years later, churches everywhere,
preaching Christ and using the same Bible you Mormons use.

This is one thing that I am having some real problems with:

Joseph Smith said that God and Jesus physically appeared to him

Said that all the Christian Creeds were ‘abominations’ to him [Filthy]

Do you agree with that?

I grew up in a church where we were taught the Apostles’ Creed and

For the life of me, I can’t find anything filthy about it

Let me recite it and I’d really like it if you tell can me what is filthy

The Apostles’ Creed

I believe in God the Father Almighty, Maker of heaven and earth, and in Jesus Christ, His only Son, our Lord; who was conceived by the Holy Ghost, Born of the Virgin Mary; suffered under Pontius Pilate, was crucified, dead and buried; He descended into hell; the third day he rose again from the dead; He ascended into heaven and sitteth on the right hand of God, the Father Almighty; From thence He shall come to judge the quick and the dead.

I believe in the Holy Ghost; the Holy Christian Church; the communion of saints; the forgiveness of sins;
the resurrection of the body; and the life everlasting. Amen.

Note: You will get a blank stare about now.. and silence.

Time now for you to comment:

I am really sorry, but if your entire premise for the establishment of your restoration
is based on that being filthy in God’s eyes,
you have a serious problem ..
and it isn’t with me. It is with the Holy God who gave you life.

TWO

Salvation

I’m confused were did Jesus suffer for my sins? How are my sins covered?
Did He do it in the Garden or on the Cross?

The Bible makes it clear that Jesus’ prayers in the Garden was  the likeness of the Old Testament preparation of the “Sin Offering” It wasn’t the actual offering but the sanctification of the offering.

Doesn’t it appear that Jesus was cleansing and sanctifying himself in preparation to be the final sin offering?

Rather than Suffering for our sins,  conditional upon our obedience to sets of laws and ordinances.  Especially when we are clearly told that He

Col 2:14

Blotted out the handwriting of ordinances that was against us, which was contrary to us, and took it out of the way, nailing it to his cross

The New Testament is filled to overflowing with references
to the saving power of the cross .

Gethsemane is mentioned twice.
In both cases only as a place where he went to pray.

Why does the church deny/ignore/shun the cross?

Isn’t it the core, pivotal point of the faith?

I fear you have become like those in Romans 1

Rom 1:20-24

they are without excuse:

21 Because that, when they knew God, they glorified him not as God, neither were thankful; but became vain in their imaginations, and their foolish heart was darkened.

22 Professing themselves to be wise, they became fools,

23 And changed the glory of the uncorruptible God into an image made like to corruptible man,

24 Wherefore God also gave them up

1 Cor 1:18

For the preaching of the cross is to them that perish foolishness; but unto us which are saved it is the power of God.

THREE

The Law of Eternal Progression

Help me understand this core doctrine of Mormonism:

As man is god once was, as god is man may become

It is Center of the faith and the work of the LDS temples..

But..

The Bible says God was God from before eternity and beyond eternity

One God.. None besides  him, none before, after.

3 times Jesus emphasized that god is spirit.

God says that he is Not [never was] a man that he should lie.

If you don’t trust Bible, BOM says

God is not changeable ever. Unchangeable from eternity to eternity.

I can’t make your Law of Eternal Progression   and these scriptures match up.

Help me understand.

Can we pray?

Final Words out the door..

Seems you have a different God, different Jesus

Different Salvation

Different heaven

Different hell

Different nature of man

Different scripture

Different  definitions of Biblical terms

in common understanding for thousands of years.

5 Minutes with a  Jehovah’s Witness

There are many passages that show the clear teaching of the deity of Jesus Christ. 
Jehovah Witnesses love the book of Revelation more than any other Book in the Bible.
And since they love it so much, you might as well use it with them.

Just prior to our release of the book, Fast facts on False Teachings,
Ron Carlson had two JWs in his Kitchen.
The next 5 minutes were perhaps the best 5 minutes ever used to witness to a witness.

He brought out his Bible and smiled.
"Let's begin and you will see something very interesting develop here," he promised.

Ron turned to Revelation 1:8,

"I am the Alpha and the Omega," says the Lord God, "who is, and who was, and who is to come, the Almighty."

Ron asked them, "Who is speaking here? I am the Alpha and Omega, says who?"

The younger man answered, "Says  the Lord God - Jehovah - God!".

"You  are absolutely right, " Ron answered. "We believe that the Alpha and Omega is Jehovah God, just as it says."

Ron  continued, "Turn to Revelation 21: 5-7. "

"He who was seated on the throne said, "I am making everything new!" Then he said, "Write this down, for these words are trustworthy and true."

He said to me: "It is done. I am the Alpha and the Omega, the Beginning and the End. To him who is thirsty I will give to drink without cost from the spring of the water of life. He who overcomes will inherit all this, and I will be his God and he will be my son. "

Here again we see the identification that Alpha and Omega is Jehovah God. The Watchtower visitors smiled broadly and immediately agreed with Ron. " You are absolutely right," said the elder of the two. "We believe that Alpha and Omega is  "Jehovah God. That's what it says."

"Turn to Revelation 22," Ron continued, "beginning with verse 13."

"I am the Alpha and the Omega, the First and the Last, the Beginning and the End."

Again, the visitors responded that it referred to Jehovah God, the Father.

Ron said, "There's just one more verse, do you think you could help me with it?"

"Oh," they said, "We'd be glad to."   They openly smiling now as Ron appeared to grasp their understanding of Jehovah God.

Ron  was on a real roll, now.   He said, "It's Revelation 1:17-18.  Will you read it for me?" he asked.

They turned in their Watchtower Bible and the elder one began to read.

"When I saw him, I fell at his feet as though dead. Then he placed his right hand on me and said: "Do not be afraid. I am the First and the Last.

Ron said, "Stop.  I've been trying to figure out who the first and the  last is. Tell me who he is."

They said, "We just saw who the first and the last is.  The first and the last is Jehovah God."

Ron said, "You mean to tell me the first and the last is Jehovah God?

They said, "Of course he's Jehovah God."

Ron replied,  "Well, keep reading."

"I  am the Living One; I was dead, and behold I am alive for ever and ever! And I hold the keys of death and Hades.

There was a  hush that followed. Ron then asked them, "When did Jehovah die?"  When did God die?" There was no answer as the men stared silently into their scriptures.

Finally the man who did most of the talking said, " I have never seen that   before."

"Well," Ron answered, "Is this your own Bible,  published by the Watchtower?"

He said, "Well yes, but I've never seen that before."

Ron again asked them, "So, tell me. When did Jehovah die?" 
They just kept looking at the verse.

At last, he quietly answered, "But Jesus died."

Ron said, "Oh, you mean Jesus is Jehovah God?"

He said, "Well, no. He can't be."

"Why not," Ron asked?

"Well, if Jesus is   Jehovah God, that would change everything else in the Bible.
everything else we believe about him."

"You know, that's what I thought too," Ron answered."

The older man stood. "We   have to leave now."

Ron said, "Sir, could you find out for me when Jehovah died?  Would you go back to your Kingdom Hall and ask your overseer when did Jehovah die?  When you get the answer could you bring your Watchtower leaders back to my house so they could tell me? I would really appreciate that." Needless to say, they never returned.

The Mormon Oath of Vengeance Against this Nation

Ed Decker

Inasmuch as Mitt Romney was born under the covenant [of this oath and its penalty] It is time to see what lurks under that smile.

Mitt's Father, George Romney, his grandfather, Gaskell Romney, and his great grandfather, Helaman Pratt were all Temple Mormons while this law and its oath and penalty were part of the ritual.  Each swore before God to teach it through the 3rd and forth generations [that brings us to Mitt again].

This curse against our country is indwelled  in Mitt Romney's spirit and he must repent of it..

I first sent it to all the General authorities at the time and published it in the area newspaper.  There was no response.  Now we need a response!

An updated Reprint of An open letter to:

The President, First Presidency and members of the General Authorities of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.

August 21, 1980

Gentlemen:

I was recently reflecting that although the oath of vengeance and its actual blood penalty were removed from the Temple ceremonies sometime after 1930, you gentlemen  are of an age to have received your own endowments prior to their removal, and therefore, are still under these oaths.

I am particularly interested in your personal position on your oath of vengeance against the United States of America. As you recall, the oath was basically as follows:

You and each of you do solemnly promise and vow that you will pray and never cease to importune high heaven to AVENGE THE BLOOD OF THE PROPHETS (Joseph and Hiram Smith) ON THIS NATION, and that you will teach this to your children and your children's children unto the third and fourth generation.

Have you officially renounced this oath? Or are you still bound by it?

If you have not renounced it, how can you presume to lead four-and-one-half [now over  six and a half million Americans] million people [US citizens] under item 12 of your Articles of Faith and still be bound to call upon heaven to heap curses upon our nation? ("We believe in being subject to Kings, Presidents, Rulers and Magistrates, in obeying, honoring, and sustaining the law.")

If you have renounced it, how can you justify having sworn such an oath in the most holy of holy places on this earth, before the sacred altar of your omnipotent God, and then renounce it? Gentlemen, I call upon you to repent of this abomination and proclaim to both the Mormon people and to the people of the United States of America that you renounce that oath and all it represents.

I also call upon all members of the Mormon Church who hold office in our government, serve in the Armed Services, work for the FBI and CIA who have gone through the Mormon Temple and sworn oaths of obedience and sacrifice to the church and its leaders (above), to repent of these oaths in the light of the obvious conflict of interest between their pledge of allegiance to the USA and their higher loyalty to a group of men who are sworn to seek vengeance against this great nation.

Sincerely,

(Signed) J. Edward Decker

The following documents from LDS people are taken from Wikipedia article on the subject

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Oath_of_vengeance

Van Duesen, (1846), Pages 3-9. ("We are required to kneel at this altar, where we have an oath administered to us to this effect; that we will avenge the blood of Joseph Smith on this Nation, and teach our children the same. They tell us that the nation has winked at the abuse and persecution of the Mormons, and the murder of the Prophet in particular; Therefore the Lord is displeased with the nation, and means to destroy it; and this is the excuse for forming this league or conspiracy.")

Young, Ann Eliza (1876), Chapter 22, Section 368. ("we swore that we would use every exertion to avenge the death of our Prophet Joseph Smith and his brother Hyrum upon the Gentile race, and to teach our children to foster this spirit of revenge also")

Mrs. G.H.R. (1879), Pg 4 ("We were then made to swear to avenge the deaths of Joseph Smith, the martyr, together with that of his brother, Hyrum, on this American nation, and that we would teach our children and our children's children to do so. The penalty for this grip and oath was disembowelment.")

Diary of Heber C. Kimball (21 December 1845) (saying that in the temple he had "covenanted, and will never rest…until those men who killed Joseph and Hyrum have been wiped out of the earth")

McMillan, Henry G., (1903), Pg 10-11. (John Bond: "The second one, I was put under, was to avenge the blood of the prophets against the Government of the United States, teach that to my children and my children's children from generation to generation, and everlastingly keep them after them. The penalty, I believe, was that the heart, or the bowels, would be torn out,-- something to that effect, so far as my memory will carry me.")

McMillan, Henry G., (1903), Pg 16-17. (Bishop Andrew Cannon: "Well, as near as I can remember I was sworn to avenge to blood of the prophets, that was understood, indirectly, to refer to Joseph Smith. ... The understanding was, that any parties who were guilty, or consented to their death, as near as I understand it. ")

Cannon, Entry for December 6, 1889, Pg 205. ("About 4:30 p.m. this meeting adjourned and was followed by a meeting of Presidents Woodruff, Cannon and Smith and Bros. Lyman and Grant. . . . In speaking of the recent examination before Judge Anderson Father said that he understood when he had his endowments in Nauvoo that he took an oath against the murderers of the Prophet Joseph as well as other prophets, and if he had ever met any of those who had taken a hand in that massacre he would undoubtedly have attempted to avenge the blood of the martyrs.")

United States Senate, (1904b), Pages 79, 149-149. (J. H. Wallis Sr.:"That you and each of you will never cease to importune High Heaven for vengeance upon this nation for the blood of the prophets who have been slain.")

United States Senate, (1904b), Pages 152-153, 161. (August W. Lundstrum: "We and each of us solemnly covenant and promise that we shall ask God to avenge the blood of Joseph Smith upon this nation. There is something more added, but that is all I can remember verbatim. That is the essential part. ... It was in regard to teaching our children and children's children to the last generation to the same effect. ")

United States Senate, (1904b), Pages 189 (Mrs. Annie Elliott: "One, I remember, they told me to pray and never cease to pray to get revenge on the blood of the prophets on this nation, and also teach it to my children and children's children.")

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Dear Pastor Joel Osteen, Shame on You!

I have just watched your remarks regarding Mitt Romney and his Mormon faith, recorded on video. http://www.onenewsnow.com/Church/Default.aspx?id=1465166

Shame on you!  You have given the enemies of the Cross a great victory. Either through sheer ignorance of the Word or your apparent desire to never offend anyone, regardless of their sins, you have handed the Mormons a huge PR gift. You have insulted and denigrated the many former Mormons like me who have spent their lives bringing Mormons the truth and to the Real Jesus, who died for their sins on Calvary. You have defined our ministries and my life’s work as worthless.

You emphatically state: The Mormons are Christian.  Are you completely ignorant of the fact that the Mormons have taught as a foundational doctrine that the creeds of all the Christian churches are abominations in the Mormons’ god’s sight?  

What kind of research or study did you undertake before you made this foolish and unbiblical utterance? Did you check with Pastor Jeffress, a godly, Christian pastor? Or with Mitt Romney, a man working out his own godhood?  Or did you just toss this out from your own lack of knowledge or as some sort of sweet sound bite?

Are you totally unaware that they have taught in their sacred temples for over a century that you and all other Christian pastors are corrupt hirelings of Satan, that you and your church are part of the great and abominable church and the whore of all the earth?  

Did you not know that Mormonism teaches a restorationist theology, stating that the gates of hell did prevail against the Church and teaching that all power and authority were lost until God chose Joseph Smith to be his holy prophet to restore all things and lead this last dispensation of time?

Did you not know that the LDS church teaches they have the only true church, the only true prophet, the only true priesthood, and the only true scripture? That all others are false? That there is NO personal salvation outside their church?

Didn’t you know that the god of Mormonism is an exalted man-god who once lived on another planet in some other galaxy? That he  earned his godhood through his good works and now lives on a planet near the great star Kolob with a harem of his many goddesses, making spirit babies to come to this earth to earn [their own] godhoods?

You say you “heard Romney say that Jesus is the Son of God and is his Savior -- and that is one of the "core issues."

You announced to the world, with a broad smile, that the Mormon Church and Romney are Christian and that the differences between Mormonism and orthodox Christianity are simply the same as the differences between Baptists and other denominations. How could you, as the pastor of one of our largest churches, say that so glibly?

Don’t you know that Mitt Romney is a man who is earning his own godhood and plans to people his own planet? That Romney is a Mormon High Priest in the Melchizedek priesthood?  That the Mormons have usurped that holy priesthood as their own?

To pronounce them Christians, do you then agree with the Mormon doctrine that the Mormon Jesus is the brother of Lucifer? That he became ‘savior’ by a vote of a council of gods? That He is not the Word become flesh, not God come in the flesh, but was conceived through an act of sex by the Mormon god and one of his own daughters, Mary?

To have publicly accepted their Christianity, you must apparently concur that Jesus did not die as ransom for our sins on the Cross, but suffered for us in the garden, sweating great drops of blood, placing our personal salvation as conditional upon our works and our obedience to the laws and ordinances of the Mormon gospel. That Jesus’ death on Calvary merely gives us all resurrection so that we may be judged for our works and obedience.

Why do you think that the Mormons have over 50,000 missionaries out, primarily targeting Christians weak in the faith? If they are Christians, why do they target other Christians?

It is because they have success in seducing people who have not been taught biblical truth and discernment  by pastors more eager to fill pews and sell books than guard their people from the ravening wolves who circle the flocks.

I am sorry, Pastor Osteen, but you have disgraced the Cross of Christ and bowed to some vile, politically correct dogma and publicly pronounced these doctrines of demons to be Christian.

These are not the quaint differences you alleged in your book tour interview. These are lies from the pit of hell. There are irreconcilable differences between orthodox Christianity and these antichrist teachings and doctrines.

The true Christian Church can never accept the Mormons as Christians until they confess these lies as sins and repent from them publicly.   If a Mormon can attend your church and be openly accepted as a Christian brother or sister without being called to the Cross and repentance, then you are teaching a false faith and need to repent and ask forgiveness from the Church and Pastor Jeffress, the pastor you have just defamed in your foolish utterances.

Ed Decker
President
Saints Alive in Jesus
www.saintsalive.com
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Notes:
Mormons are Christians, says Joel Osteen, Texas Mega Church Pastor
Fred Jackson - OneNewsNow - 10/25/201   Reports

…Osteen said he also disagreed with a fellow Texas pastor -- Robert Jeffress -- who recently stated that Perry's political opponent, Mitt Romney, was "not a Christian" because he is a Mormon, and that Mormonism is a "cult."

In a video posted by The Washington Times (above), Osteen states that while he did not know whether Mormonism is the "purest form of Christianity," he has heard Romney say that Jesus is the Son of God and is his Savior -- and that is one of the "core issues," the pastor concludes.

Osteen was in the nation's capital for planning meetings for a major event he is holding in Washington next spring. He was also signing copies of his new book Every Day a Friday: How to be Happier 7 Days a Week….