On September 29, 2023, two friends of mine and I attended the LDS General Conference. This is put on by the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (LDS), also known as the Mormons. We went there to evangelize. Now, you must understand that it was not a typical evangelism scenario – as if there was one. Thousands of Mormons attend the conferences; when it is over, they leave and walk to their cars. There are only a few ways to exit. So, Christians will often stand at those exits, shout out ‘sayings,’ pass out tracts, and hold up signs. That is what the three of us did; we held up a sign that said, “IsMormonismChristian.com.” The sign was highly visible and readable from a reasonable distance. The hope is that Mormons will see the sign, memorize the URL, go to the site, and read the documentation that is there. Hopefully, by God’s grace, they will come to faith in the true God, the true Christ, and the true gospel.
Approaches
Christians need to know that Mormons are taught they will be persecuted. So, when they see someone standing and yelling, attacking Joseph Smith, holding signs, etc., this verifies to them that they are in the true church. Therefore, we ought to be careful when dealing with a crowd of Mormons. But it is still necessary to raise our voices in order for them to hear us. And, in doing so, we don’t want to sound angry and accusatory. So, when I was there at the General Conference, I would ask two things just loud enough to be heard, but not ‘yelling.’ The first was:
“Do you believe that your god is an exalted man from another world? If so, doesn’t that make him an alien?”
Now, I’m not trying to be flippant or derogatory, but hopefully, it’ll make them think. On several occasions, Mormons smiled at my comment. This means they heard it.
The second thing I would say was…
“Why does the Mormon church put the veil back in the temple that God destroyed when Christ was crucified?”
You may or may not know that in Mormonism, there are hundreds of temples all over the world. Mormons go into them for special ceremonies. They have a variety of rooms where they participate in different ordinances. In one of the rooms, there is a veil behind which an individual represents their god and literally shakes with the temple-goers through slits in the veil. This is to serve one of the requirements of potentially becoming gods in the afterlife. This veil is supposed to represent the veil that was in the temple during the time of Christ. Aside from their unbiblical theology, we can look at the book of Matthew. After Jesus cried out and yielded up His spirit (Matthew 27:50), the veil was torn in two.
Matthew 27:51, “And behold, the veil of the temple was torn in two from top to bottom; and the earth shook, and the rocks were split.“
So, the true God is the one who ripped the veil in two. He destroyed it – from top to bottom. Yet the Mormons put it back. Why do they do that if God destroyed it? Of course, you can see the potential difficulty that they would have – a very big one.
Different Encounters
By God’s grace, the three of us had several encounters with different people. I got to practice my Spanish with one LDS gentleman. It went well. Another time, I spoke with someone (not a Mormon) who had a strange perspective that the Father and the Holy Spirit were the same person, but Jesus is a created thing. That was an interesting conversation. But also, there were lots of Christians from different places like Colorado, Florida, and Arizona who gathered there in an attempt to witness and share their true faith. It was great seeing other Christians.
Finally, all we can do is attempt to reach the lost with the truth of the gospel message. It can be risky, embarrassing, and rewarding, but it’s definitely worth it, especially at the LDS General Conference.
