I’ve been in conversation with a Mormon missionary lately. Our first meeting, at the front door of my parents’ home, wasn’t the best. I was visiting my parents while traveling for work and happened to be the only one home when the missionaries stopped by. In our recent interaction through email, this missionary admitted he wasn’t sure how God reveals the truth to us.
How Does God Confirm The Truth To Us?
In one of the emails with the Mormon missionary, he admitted he didn’t know how God reveals His truth to us. I actually didn’t focus on this too much in my original email back to him. As the evening went on, and when I woke up the following day, I felt like the holy spirit was telling me to focus on this admission of the missionary about truth and God.
Out of obedience to what I felt the holy spirit was telling me, I sent him the following email. Normal me wouldn’t have sent this, fearing it’s just “too much” or “stupid.” But those feelings are not of Christ, so I wrote it out, prayed, put my trust in God, and hit send. Here’s that email.
God is Truth
It’s Saturday, and I just had this thought and felt like it was from God and that He wanted me to share it with you.
You said you aren’t sure how else God confirms truth to us. God IS truth. So everything He says or does is THE TRUTH. He’s the standard for holiness, goodness, justice, and truth.
Think of it like this- how do you know a line is crooked?
Because you’ve seen a straight one. Right?
The straight line is that standard and anything that deviates from it, is crooked or NOT straight.
God works in the same way. He’s the standard for:
- our morals
- what’s right
- what is holy
- what is just
- and what is true.
Anything that deviates from that is unholy, unjust, wrong, and a lie.
So the bible- divinely written by God through man, is that standard and is God’s word to us. So everything we hear – maybe prophecies from prophets or new revelations- should be tested against the word of God- the Bible. And God’s unchanging nature, which He reveals to us in the bible.
Frist John 4 is a great example: 1st John 4 is a great example:
“Beloved, do not believe every spirit, but test the spirits to see whether they are from God, for many false prophets have gone out into the world. 2 By this you know the Spirit of God: every spirit that confesses that Jesus Christ has come in the flesh is from God, 3 and every spirit that does not confess Jesus is not from God. This is the spirit of the antichrist, which you heard was coming and now is in the world already. 4 Little children, you are from God and have overcome them, for he who is in you is greater than he who is in the world. 5 They are from the world; therefore they speak from the world, and the world listens to them. 6 We are from God. Whoever knows God listens to us; whoever is not from God does not listen to us. By this we know the Spirit of truth and the spirit of error.”
This is why, just for your mission and understanding of where Christians are coming from- there’s such a rebuke of the BOM. Because the BOM contradicts the Bible (and it contradicts itself, but that’s for another time). I’m not going to change your mind at all. My goal is to hopefully give you a better understanding which will only help you in your mission (and life!).
And while I understand you believe there are missing books of the bible- that doesn’t change the fact that those books MUST align. If they contradict, they cannot be from God.
The bible absolutely says that all things will be revealed later (I think your old mission companion brought this up). However, with that, we are commanded to know the bible (the truth) and test all spirits and people coming in Jesus’ name against the word of God because the enemy is also at work.
If anything or anyone comes in Christs name and what they say goes against the Word of God (the straight line) then we can know that’s a crooked person (line) or spirit.
Ok. That’s all God has for you this morning lol! (I am not God here, I just really felt He wanted me to tell that to you).
God is Truth.
I don’t know where this email will lead, if anywhere. But I do know God and that He loves us, and grieves when His people are deceived and kept from Him. I pray for this missionary, for my brother, and for me to continue being obedient and to speak truth in love, something I will forever have to work on.