Trying to share the truth with Mormons
I used to sponsor a group on Facebook dealing with Christian Apologetics. A lot of things are discussed there, but Mormonism takes a front row seat.
Several Mormons had been responding to articles I posted and literally all but buried the site in laborious, cookie cutter LDS responses. I am sure they meant well, but it became a frustration and time waster dealing with them.
I would write an article; they would respond with an often lengthy, Mormon exhortation. Usually, they would say that I didn’t understand Mormonism, I lied, I misrepresented their doctrines or actions and would go on to give a candy-coated look at the only true church, knowing that many people were reading what they say.
I responded to their posts, giving them answers and facts to support my original premise and they responded back, ignoring my evidence, brushing me off as an angry ex-Mormon who couldn’t live the gospel and other responders as naive Christians who never understood Mormonism and then the Mormons go off on another tangent.
On one topic, I finally just deleted the entire post, just to cut off their supple line for prattle. It was going nowhere.
I have been thinking about this phenomenon and recalled a teaching I did over 30 years ago. I wish I still had the notes. If I do, they are buried in the many notes I kept over the years, a significant sum that I hope someone, someday will sort through. Sort of like the closet full of boxes filled with photos we will probably never sort through, either.
The frustration comes from trying to deal with what I call
Cult Think.
Cult Think is the way cult members process data. Data from the cult itself, in the form of sermons, teachings, books, manuals, rules, regulations, tests of worthiness go straight in. It is direct access with no filtering. It is never weighed and measured.
For example, Mormons have been taught that when the leaders speak, the thinking is done. To question or study a thing out with outside resources is to invite apostasy and the loss of one’s testimony.
Often a Biblical scripture taken outside of context is to be accepted as evidence of some truth the cult’s leader may be expounding on, even though the Biblical context is opposite its use. Many of my website articles are filled with such examples.
The Mormon leaders say that God is an exalted man, and that worthy Mormons can attain their own godhood. The faithful Mormon accepts that as eternal truth, even though the Bible refutes that in a several dozen clear scriptures. There is no study or searching out the scriptures. You must wonder that the Mormon accepts this premise blindly when even the Book of Mormon denies that doctrine.
Now, on the other hand, any data from a former member or a concerned Christian; a caring family member or neighbor, is received as an attack on the faith and is filtered through a thick wall of defense and denial.
The Mormon or other cult member is taught to believe in their heart that if the giver of the data left the cult/church, it was to live a life in sin. He/she couldn’t live up to the laws and ordinances of the cult gospel; is making money saying these evil things, hates the cult/ Mormons, is lying about it, manipulating scripture to cause them to lose their testimony.
The result is that just a fraction of the data penetrates the wall. When enough is said or read to break through the wall, the Mormon or other cult member immediately goes to bearing one’s testimony of the truthfulness of the cult or its leader or prophet or doctrine.
When this hypnotic/trance like testimony is over, the wall is back up and in place, the data giver is back to square one.
Once I was asked by a pastor to be at his side when he met with a Mormon couple and their bishop, to discuss why he allowed their LDS daughter to go forward at an altar call in his church. They were furious. When the bishop saw that I was sitting with the pastor, they put the meeting on hold, and we sat there until two men with higher ranking than bishop showed up.
When one of the new arrivals was stunned that he did not have answer to a question that I had asked, he immediately went into testimony mode.
As he got to the “… and I believe the Book of Mormon is the Word of God…” I noticed from across the small desk that his eyes had fully dilated. He was in a hypnotic state!
I loudly smacked my hands together right in front of his face and loudly proclaimed, “The Book of Mormon cannot be true.”
He sat there in a silent daze and did not open his mouth again for the rest of the meeting. He was literally bewildered.
My point is: Realize that you are dealing with Cult Think when you witness. Watch for it, work around it, and keep poking those holes. Those walls do come down through prayer, love, and persistence.