Tuesday, July 15, 2025

The Spurgeon of Our Generation: A Tribute to John MacArthur


 A Moment in Time That Would Change the World 

Chances are, you’ve never heard of the small town of Eutaw, Alabama, located in the swamps of Greene County. But Eutaw is a very special place. On a personal note, Eutaw is only 40 minutes from where I was raised. Some of my fondest memories from my youth were spent hunting and fishing with friends in the woods and rivers on the outskirts of Eutaw. 

Eutaw is a special place for another reason. It’s where an 18-year-old John MacArthur surrendered his life to the ministry over 65 years ago. He was on a road trip with friends, travelling down Interstate 20/59, when suddenly the driver rolled their car at 75 mph. MacArthur was thrown out of the passenger seat, onto the road. He skidded across the asphalt for nearly 125 yards, tearing the flesh from his hands, back, and legs. Miraculously, not a bone was broken. 

Although MacArthur had felt the calling of God on his life, he wasn’t sold on the idea. He had aspirations of being a collegiate and possibly a professional athlete. However, this moment in time changed all of that, as the injured MacArthur stood up on the side of the interstate in Eutaw, Alabama, and said, “Lord, whatever you want me to do, I’ll do it…I’ll serve you any way you want me to. If it’s a small ministry, give me the grace to do it and be satisfied. If it’s a larger ministry, give me the humility to do it.” (Link). The skies didn’t open. There was no choir of angels. There was no theophany. But MacArthur could never have imagined how the Lord would honor and answer that prayer. 


MacArthur’s Ministry At A Glance

MacArthur became the Pastor of Grace Community Church in Sun Valley, California, in 1969 and served there for over 56 years, until his death on July 14, 2025. Though a relatively small church in 1969, the church now reports over 3,000 in attendance each week. 

In 1977, MacArthur and GCC launched the “Grace to You” radio broadcast, which currently airs over 1,000 times a day worldwide. The Spanish version is available in 23 countries in Europe and Latin America (Link). Thousands of these sermons have now been archived on the Grace to You app. 

MacArthur became president of The Master’s College, formerly Los Angeles Baptist College, in 1985. A year later, he founded The Master’s Seminary, a graduate school designed to train men for ministry and missionary service. (IBID). 

MacArthur has authored over 400 books and study guides, including The MacArthur Study Bible, which is available in nine languages and has sold over 1 million copies. (IBID). 

During the Covid outbreak (2020-21), MacArthur and GCC defied both local and state authorities under threat of heavy fines and possible arrests in order to continue meeting for worship. Eventually, the church won an $800,000 lawsuit against said authorities due to their unconstitutional mandates. MacArthur accomplished all of this while being out of his beloved Fresca, due to supply shortages.

MacArthur was also a devoted husband to Patricia for over 60 years. They have four children, fifteen grandchildren, and nine great-grandchildren.   


The Spurgeon of Our Generation

I firmly believe that in a hundred years, people will talk about MacArthur with the same reverence that we have for Spurgeon today. I certainly didn’t invent the Spurgeon-Macarthur comparison, but I think it deserves some attention. I’m sure that if we all got together and brainstormed, we could come up with several comparisons between these giants of the faith, but for the sake of brevity, I will discuss only two reasons why the comparison should hold weight. 

First, MacArthur and Spurgeon are the most published preachers of the last 350 years, and it’s not even close (here’s looking at you, John Owen). We mentioned MacArthur's publishing prowess in the previous section. In the same vein, “Spurgeon's sermons sold 25,000 copies every week. They were translated into more than 20 languages.” There are more than 3,600 of Spurgeon’s sermons in print. “The New Park Street Pulpit and The Metropolitan Tabernacle Pulpit—the collected sermons of Spurgeon during his ministry with that congregation—fill 63 volumes. The sermons' 20-25 million words are equivalent to the 27 volumes of the ninth edition of the Encyclopedia Britannica. The series stands as the largest set of books by a single author in the history of Christianity. At least 3 of Spurgeon's works (including the multi-volume Metropolitan Tabernacle Pulpit series) have sold more than 1,000,000 copies. One of these, All of Grace, was the first book ever published by Moody Press (formerly the Bible Institute Colportage Association) and is still its all-time bestseller.” (Link).   

Spurgeon is quoted every week in pulpits all across the world. The main reason for this (other than the fact that the guy was a quote factory) is that we have so much material to quote from. The same can certainly be said of MacArthur, which brings me to my next point. 

The second reason for the validity of the MacArthur-Spurgeon comparison is somewhat complex. Let me just say that time has a way of elevating a man’s character and minimizing his controversy. I'm sure that the reader is familiar with the term, "the good ole days." The ironic thing about the good ole days is that nobody ever recognizes them in the present. They are always a thing of the past. I think the reason for this is that we are always aware of the struggles of the present, but God and time have a way of filtering the struggles of the past, leaving us with fond memories of the good times. I think this principle applies to good men as well as good days.

It’s hard to find anyone in our day who doesn’t respect Spurgeon. I’ve even heard preachers bash Calvinism in a sermon, and in that same sermon quote Spurgeon in a reverent way (oh the irony). Almost everyone loves Charles Spurgeon. However, such was not the case during his lifetime. 

In his early days of ministry, Spurgeon was battling against the Hyper-Calvinists, who used their large platforms to accuse him of preaching a false “duty-faith” by inviting sinners to come to Christ (Link). In the latter days of his ministry, Spurgeon was fighting against Arminianism and a tsunami of easy-believism (Link). Spurgeon separated himself from the Baptist Union due to their theological liberalism and ecumenism (Link). Spurgeon even took shots from his own for defending men like D.L. Moody and Ira Sankey and their controversial methods of evangelism (Link). Many times during his life, Spurgeon was like a man with no country. However, his controversy has faded, and his character has been immortalized.   

MacArthur was also no stranger to controversy. He was too Calvinistic for the Aminians, not Calvinistic enough for the Hyper-Calvinists, too dispy for the reformed, too reformed for the dispys, too conservative for the “young, restless and reformed” movement, too liberal for the fringe fundamentalists, too complementarian for the egalitarians, too cessationist for the charismatics, too credo for the Presbys, too anti-government for the Romans 13 crowd, too Romans 13 for the rabidly pro-America crowd, too Lordship for the cheap gracers, too anti-vaxxer for the Branch Covidians, and let’s not forget about those who want to hang thief beef by ignoring over 60 years of sermons and books and use a 30 second clip out of context to claim that MacArthur didn’t believe in the necessity of the blood of Christ for salvation. You get the idea.

Time wouldn’t allow us to examine his numerous controversial interviews on national news outlets, such as Larry King Live, concerning hot-button social issues, which, in a world full of Joel Osteens, was a breath of fresh air (Please do yourself a favor and watch this short clip).  Love him or hate him, John MacArthur was nobody's lap dog. He was a man of principle, and men of principle live long after the voices of their detractors are faded and forgotten.


MacArthur’s Impact On My Life

Due to this stigma of controversy, I was warned to safeguard myself from John MacArthur and his teachings by some of my mentors. However, about 10 years ago, I was going through a really difficult personal trial that was beginning to affect my ministry. In God’s providence, I stumbled across a sermon series from MacArthur that dealt with exactly what I was going through. 

The Lord used MacArthur’s teaching not only to help me go another mile but to change my life and ministry. MacArthur had a significant impact on my love and practice of expositional preaching and teaching. He also taught me that the power in preaching is found in the God-breathed Scriptures, not the rhetoric and charisma of the preacher. This has been one of my greatest anchors since the Lord called my family and me to reach the Latter-Day Saints in Utah in 2020. 

He has also greatly helped me in the study of the Scriptures. For many years, there has rarely been a week that went by when I don’t read after MacArthur as part of my sermon prep. When young preachers ask me about the most crucial books for them to have in their library, my immediate answer is that John MacArthur’s commentary on the New Testament should be at the top of the list. The reason for this is that I know of no other contemporary author/pastor who can so clearly and directly just tell you what the Bible says. 

I never had the privilege of meeting John MacArthur, but in 2019, I was able to attend his church while on a medical trip for my wife (Cedars-Sinai). To my disappointment, MacArthur was on a sabbatical. However, one of the security team members was kind enough to take me to see MacArthur’s office after the service. This man also told me that MacArthur had reserved one of his bookshelves to stock copies of his various books for visitors like me who attend when he isn’t there. I was able to select a book from that shelf as a gift. So I now have a copy of The Gospel According to God from the office of John MacArthur. For these reasons (and so many others), I will forever be grateful for the ministry and example of John MacArthur. What a vessel of the Lord in this generation. He brought such stability and light that will be greatly missed.


Conclusion

It’s been nearly 70 years since the Lord called John MacArthur to the ministry on the shoulder of that Alabama Interstate. I doubt that in his injured state, MacArthur paid too much attention to his surroundings. But had he looked to the trees, there is no way that he could have known that decades later, a young man would be hunting in those very woods, who not only knew his name, but had been significantly impacted by his sermons and books, and that this young man would be only one of millions worldwide.   

I think this story is indicative of the kind of reach and influence that MacArthur had. And if in the coming decades the Spurgeon comparison becomes a reality, and MacArthur is quoted so reverently and universally, separated from his controversy, then I would like to start the trend by leaving the reader with one of my favorite JMac quotes. “If the truth offends, then let it offend. People have been living their whole lives in offense to God; let them be offended for a while.”


"His lord said unto him, Well done, good and faithful servant; thou hast been faithful over a few things, I will make thee ruler over many things: enter thou into the joy of thy lord.” Matthew 25:23


Monday, October 21, 2024

Why Would a Loving God Send Anyone To Hell?



 I get this question a lot from my LDS friends. The implication, and in many cases the direct statement, is that the God of Mormonism is somehow more loving than the God of the Bible. Nothing could be further from the truth. When we understand who and what we really are and who God is, the question that we should all be asking is, “Why doesn’t God send everyone to Hell?” 

Let’s start with an illustration. Imagine for a moment that somebody brutally murders one of your loved ones. The man is arrested, and the case goes to trial. There is a mountain of evidence to prove this man’s guilt, so much so that it erases all doubt. He’s a cold-blooded killer. As you sit in the packed courtroom surrounded by family and friends, the verdict is read, “We find the defendant guilty of murder in the 1st degree.” An audible sigh of relief can be heard throughout the courtroom. Justice is about to be served. 

When the time comes for sentencing, the judge says to the defendant, “The state has proven beyond any shadow of a doubt that you committed this heinous murder. Throughout this entire trial you have shown zero remorse, and I believe that given the opportunity, you would kill again. I could sentence you to death. However, I want you to know that I am so loving that I am acquitting you of all charges. You may leave this courtroom as a free man.” With that, the judge slams his gavel and retires to his chambers. 

This leads me to ask the million-dollar question: was this a loving thing to do? Of course not! This decision not only jeopardizes the public's safety, but everyone can clearly see the injustice in this situation, and it’s never loving to be unjust. This was an unrighteous judge, completely derelict of his duty to punish criminals, protect the public, and get justice for the victim. 

God is all-loving, so much so that He is incapable of doing anything unloving. This means that He could never be like this wicked judge. When we understand how the concepts of love and justice fit together hand in hand, it begins to make sense why a loving God would punish sinners. Asking why a loving God would send anyone to Hell is like asking why a loving judge would send a murderer to death row. 

The reader might be saying. “Well, I’m not that bad, I haven’t killed anybody.” Not bad by what standard? Your own? The criminal always finds a way to justify his crimes. This leads us to ground zero regarding our problem as human beings. We don’t see ourselves as criminals before a Holy and Righteous God. This is certainly true of the LDS. I was speaking with an LDS friend the other day who told me that Heavenly Father can love us more deeply because, in LDS theology, we are all his children. Whereas, in Christian theology, we are merely His creatures. Let’s take a moment to analyze this statement. 

The Bible makes it crystal clear that we had no pre-existence. Adam was the first man. God took the dirt that He made out of nothing, formed Adam, and breathed life into his nostrils, making him a living soul (Genesis 2:7). Adam, acting as our federal representative (Romans 5:12), rebelled against God (ironically, like Satan, wanting to become his own god). As a result of the fall, we are all born with a sinful, rebellious heart. We have all sinned and fallen short of God’s glory and standard (Romans 3:10, 23). We are all born with the desire to be our own god. We want autonomy from our Creator. 

Because of sin, we are the enemies of God, not the children of God. This is why we must be adopted into God's family through faith in Christ (Galatians 4:4-6). Let me ask a question: Isn’t it more loving for God to send His only begotten Son to die for His enemies than what LDS theology teaches? “But God commendeth his love toward us, in that, while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us. 9 Much more then, being now justified by his blood, we shall be saved from wrath through him. 10 For if, when we were enemies, we were reconciled to God by the death of his Son, much more, being reconciled, we shall be saved by his life.” (Romans 5:8-10) What a thought: the God of all creation became a man and died for mankind! It doesn’t get any more loving than that. 

We would all be guilty even by God’s minimum standard of human behavior, the Ten Commandments. We have all lied (that makes us liars). We have all used God’s name in vain in some type of way (that makes us blasphemers). We have all lusted in our hearts (that makes us adulterers). We have all put our selfish ambitions before God (that makes us idolaters). Sadly, people are mistaken if they think they will stand before God and have Him pat them on the back. This is why we need salvation in Christ. Jesus didn’t die on the cross and rise again just so that we could have a resurrection body. He came that we might have our sins forgiven! “In whom we have redemption through his blood, the forgiveness of sins, according to the riches of his grace.” (Ephesians 1:7). 

In reference to our inability to recognize our own sinfulness, Calvin gave an illustration of staring at earthly things as opposed to trying to stare at the Sun. Our eyes do just fine when we look at earthly things, such as trees, rocks, flowers, etc. But if we tried to look directly at the Sun we would be blinded in just a short time. It’s the same when we compare ourselves to others, as opposed to seeing ourselves in the light of a Holy God. 


“For as long as our views are bounded by the earth, perfectly content with our own righteousness, wisdom, and strength, we fondly flatter ourselves, and fancy we are little less than demigods. But, if we once elevate our thoughts to God, and consider his nature, and the consummate perfection of his righteousness, wisdom, and strength, to which we ought to be conformed,—what before charmed us in ourselves under the false pretext of righteousness, will soon be loathed as the greatest iniquity; what strangely deceived us under the title of wisdom, will be despised as extreme folly; and what wore the appearance of strength, will be proved to be most wretched impotence.”



Why Eternal Punishment?

The reader might think, "Okay, I get the whole justice thing, but for all eternity, come on. How is that fair?” Growing up, I heard a preacher say that if we could open the portals of hell and give those sinners one last chance to repent and make Christ their Lord and Savior, they would jump at the opportunity. I don’t believe that. While nobody wants to suffer in hell, merely giving them another chance doesn’t make them love God. Let me illustrate.

In college, I had to write a paper on the notorious serial killer John Wayne Gacy (yes, I took some of my core classes at a secular college). That was one scary guy. During the day, he would dress up like a clown and volunteer at the local children’s hospital. At night, he would kidnap young men, torture them, kill them, and bury them in the crawlspace of his house. When Gacy was finally arrested, the authorities found 29 bodies on his property, most of them under his house. Apparently, he had run out of room and started throwing bodies in the river. 

In a CBS interview 2 years before his execution in 1994, Gacy minimized or flat-out denied what he did. He actually painted himself as the innocent victim in all of this. Somehow, he managed to justify everything in his mind. Even on the day of his execution, he never showed an ounce of remorse. 

I bring up this situation with Gacy to point out two things. First, the average person is repulsed by the sins of someone like Gacy. If we’re not careful, it can fill us with a sense of self-righteous pride: "We’re not like that guy.” We might be tempted to feel like there is a significant moral gap between us and someone like Gacy. Let’s pretend for the sake of argument that this is true. If there is a large gap between us and someone like Gacy, how much of a gap do you think exists between us and the Thrice Holy God of the universe? However repulsed we are by the sins of Gacy, Hitler, Mao, Manson, etc., God is infinitely more repulsed by our sins. Isaiah makes what God thinks about our righteousness clear. “But we are all as an unclean thing, and all our righteousnesses are as filthy rags; and we all do fade as a leaf; and our iniquities, like the wind, have taken us away.” (Isaiah 64:6). This wasn’t just true of Israel, it’s true of all of us. 

The second reason I bring Gacy up is to show why hell is eternal. Let’s pretend that instead of getting the death penalty, that Gacy was sentenced to life in prison. Let’s also pretend that Gacy would be alive for another thousand years. Do you think there would ever come a time when Gacy could be paroled and let out on the street? Absolutely not. Because being in prison did not and could not change who he was in his heart, a killer. It’s the same way with people in hell. If God were to let people out of hell, He would just be raising another rebellion against Himself and have to throw them right back in. It would be a pointless endeavor. “But the fearful, and unbelieving, and the abominable, and murderers, and whoremongers, and sorcerers, and idolaters, and all liars, shall have their part in the lake which burneth with fire and brimstone: which is the second death.” (Revelation 21:8) 

We all have a sense of justice and recognize injustice as unloving. The problem is that our sinful nature has clouded our understanding of justice. Like Gacy, we try to give ourselves a pass and minimize our actions. But God, as the righteous judge, isn’t going to do that. Ultimately, we will either judge God by our standard or judge ourselves by God’s standard. If we go with the latter, we will throw ourselves desperately upon the mercy of Christ, which is the only way to be saved from our sins. If we go with the former, how can we expect God to turn a blind eye? “How shall we escape, if we neglect so great salvation; which at the first began to be spoken by the Lord, and was confirmed unto us by them that heard him.” (Hebrews 2:3)


Monday, August 5, 2024

A Christian Pastor Reviews "When Church is Hard" by Tyler Johnson

 


    I recently stopped by the local Deseret bookstore where I live in Logan, Utah. Even though I am a Christian pastor, I am constantly reading and studying LDS material so that I can better understand the theology and culture of the church. Other than that I’m just a book nerd in general (I have a serious problem). On this particular trip to the DB, a book caught my attention: When Church is Hard by Tyler Johnson. So I forked out $18.99 plus tax and then explained to my wife that it would be the last book that I buy for a while (do you think she bought it :). While there is some good information in the book, there are some things about it that grieved me, so I felt compelled to review it from a pastor’s perspective. Let’s dive in. 

The Winds Are Changing 

    There are two audiences that Johnson is aiming for in this work, those who have been hurt by the church and left, and those who are hanging on by a thread either because of doubt or church hurt. But before I get into the content of When Church is Hard, I just want to take a moment to point out that I think it says a lot about the current climate of the LDS church to even publish a book title like this. Not only did Deseret publish this book but it was front and center as I walked into the store (it caught my attention, didn’t it). It reminds me of a novelty item that my grandmother kept out in her yard. It was a big rock with a sign sitting on top of it that said, “This is a weather rock. If it’s wet, it’s raining outside. If there is snow on it, it’s snowing. If it’s hot to the touch, it’s hot outside. If it’s cold to the touch, it’s cold outside.” The humor was facetious, but the point was clear, you don’t need a weather rock to determine what the weather is doing. This book seems like a weather rock to me, pointing to the obvious problem of a mass exodus of people from the LDS church (mostly younger people). Johnson admits this in the opening chapter. “The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, specifically, is no longer holding sway over its members in the way that it once did.” This is why Johnson writes to try and convince those who are on the fence to stay in the church. Let’s get into the content. 

The Pros 

    Giving credit where it’s due, I found Dr. Johnson very readable and engaging. I also appreciate the work that he does in the field of oncology. On a personal level, it took me about 5 minutes to realize that Mr. Johnson is very well-read. I automatically feel a certain level of respect and camaraderie with someone when I discover this fact about them. I enjoyed the early chapters of the book the most simply because he gave some really good data and insights on issues that affect organized religion accross the board. The truth is that we live in a TikTok world where everything must be flashy and last no longer than 90 seconds or people lose interest. On a practical level, this can make it difficult for churches of any stripe considering that a church service is going to require a certain level of listening and literary skills. It also means that people may have to go a whole hour or two without being able to check social media (Oh the agony!). 

    Our society is also quickly losing any sense of the sacred, and unfortunately, even many churches seem to be falling into the pit of consumerism. I haven’t checked the numbers lately but I think that it’s safe to say that most if not all mainline denominations in the U.S. are shrinking, while certain individual churches are flourishing. It is precisely for all of these reasons that a church can be small, and yet healthy. Or a church can be large and sick. The question is, what kind of spiritual food is being served, sheep food or goat food? Charles Spurgeon once said that he feared a day was coming in which, “instead of pastors feeding the sheep, we would be left with clowns entertaining the goats.” Attracting an audience isn’t necessarily the sign of a healthy church. Last year the church accross the street from my in-law’s house in Mississippi caught on fire when it was struck by lighting. The cell phone video that my Mother-in-law recorded of the incident made national news. That church had never had so many spectators, but it certainly wasn’t an indication of the health of the church. I didn’t mean to get off on a tangent here, I said all of this to say I think that people are leaving the LDS church in droves because the church is sick and not simply because of all of the cultural phenomena. I actually think that Johnson highlights this point even as he tries to deny it. Let’s examine his arguments. 

No Control like Damage Control

    There was a survey conducted in 2023 that determined that the top three reasons that people leave the LDS church are; 1. History related to Joseph Smith, 2. The Book of Mormon, 3. Race issues in the church. So it comes as no surprise that in a book geared towards keeping people from leaving the LDS church, these issues would be dealt with (I think that Johnson references this survey in the footnotes, although he never mentions why). Johnson never dealt with the problems of the Book of Mormon (i.e. zero ancient manuscripts to verify its validity, not one shred of archaeological evidence to prove the Lamanites, Nephites, or Jaredites ever existed, contradictions, anachronisms, massive sections of the BOM directly plagiarized from the KJV, etc.), but he does deal with some of the negative history of Joseph Smith and the racism within the church. 

    To Johnson’s credit, he admits that; 

    “Joseph Smith married many women, that some of those women were only teenagers, that some of the women were already married to other men, that most of the marriages were at least initially hidden from Emma, and that at least some of the marriages appear to have been physically consummated (though evidence suggests that was at least mostly not the case with sealings to married women, and the Joseph never fathered a child with any of his polygamous wives). Because these relationships were conducted in such privacy, much remains unknown about them. Even so, just the rough outline, at least on its surface, seems deeply troubling.”

    I have lost count of how many lifelong Latter-day Saints that I have talked to that don’t know this about Smith. And every time that I mention it, the LDS want to write me off as a rabid anti-Mormon. I appreciate Johnson for bringing this out, although I will say that I think that the internet has forced the church’s hand. They have lost their echo chamber as this information is so easy to find. However, I was staggered that Johnson didn’t say another word about it. He just went on to the next subject. Wait a second, the founding prophet of Mormonism, Joseph Smith, married over 30 women, many of them teenagers (at least one as young as 14, Johnson left that out), at least 11 of them were married to other men when Smith married them, and at least eight of them he married before Emma found out about it, and we’re just going to act like it’s not a big deal? Move along folks, nothing to see here. Not only that, Joseph Smith actually had the gall to tell Emma that God said to him that if she didn’t forgive him and accept these new wives she would be destroyed (D & C 132:52-54).  

    In what universe is this ok? To my LDS readers, is this the man that you’re going to trust your eternal soul to? This is the “prophet” that you’re going to trust the souls of your family with? Do you trust this man when he criticizes and changes the Bible? Do you trust him when he says that the church and the gospel of Christ were essentially lost on the earth and God commissioned him to restore it? This man was a pedophile, a deceiver, and a serial adulterer, and Johnson just mentioned it in passing and moved on to something else. See, this is the part where everyone who’s not drinking the Kool-Aid sees it for what it is. No wonder people are leaving the church in droves. Nobody in leadership has the answers to these obvious problems. Like Johnson, they just go on damage control. 

    Johnson went on to mention the obvious history of racism in the church, as blacks weren’t allowed to receive the priesthood or enter the temples until 1978 (everyone outside of the echo chamber knows they caved because of the pressure of the civil rights movement). However, I found it staggering that right after Johnson mentions Smith’s sex romps, he tries to distance him from racism, as if Smith would be above that. Johnson stated, “The revelation of 1978 was not a new policy but instead a restoration of the policy Joseph Smith had implemented.” This assertion is very debatable, but even if it’s true, it still raises hard questions to which Johnson and the church have no answers. This brings me to my next point. 

Questions with No Answers

    After briefly (as in less than a page and a half) mentioning Smith’s sexcapades and the church’s historical racism, Johnson proceeds to try to deal with the obvious question that all thinking people are asking at this point; if the prophets that supposedly speak for God can get it so wrong, then how can the church be true? As you can probably guess, it was a dumpster fire. Johnson begins by saying; 

    “It’s one thing to note that these teachings have changed, but the larger point here is to acknowledge that some Church teachings from previous eras were wrong and harmful- a truth we can now recognize precisely because those old teachings have been superseded by greater light and further revelation.”

    This is smooth as silk right here folks. In the same sentence, Johnson calls these teachings from a previous era (polygamy and racist policies) “wrong and harmful”, and then proceeds to say that these teachings have been “superseded by greater light and further revelation.” The implication is that the previous revelations that were “wrong” were also given by light and revelation from God and have just been outdated and superseded by greater light and revelation. This is what George Orwell called “doublethink.” He said, “Doublethink means the power of holding two contradictory beliefs in one’s mind simultaneously, and accepting both of them.” Johnson’s doublethink reveals a terrifying proposition, even when the prophets are wrong, they are right. 

    If there was any doubt about this, Johnson removes the doubt by what he says in the following pages, “The imperfections of prophets must therefore draw us back to the necessity of the Atonement, grace, and love of Jesus.” I almost spit my decaf out when I read this statement. Wait, what? So the imperfect teachings of the prophets should drive Latter-day Saints back to other teachings that were also given and taught by imperfect prophets. Does the reader see a problem here? Again, even when the prophets are wrong, they are right. No wonder people are leaving the church in droves, there isn’t any solid foundation of truth. The LDS church is built upon a foundation of sand. 

    This point is further driven home by what Johnson says about LGBT issues. He never condemns the LGBT lifestyle, nor does he condone it. Instead, he heavily implies that just like the prophets changed their mind about blacks in the priesthood, they could also change their minds about the LGBT. What utter confusion. What was a sin yesterday, could be accepted and celebrated tomorrow and vice versa. And I’m just going to call it, I give the LDS church 5-10 years before they figure out a way to seal gay weddings in the temple. But when they do, I can still pick up my Bible, written by the true Prophets and Apostles and it will still say that homosexuality is an abomination unto God. Johnson made it sound like the greatest hope for the LGBT is that the prophets change their mind about it being sinful. I want to say that the greatest hope for any sinner is the death, burial, and resurrection of Christ for sinners. The beauty of the gospel is not that Christ affirms us in our sin, but that He saves us from our sin! 

    Johnson repeatedly calls the prophets imperfect, and therefore they prophesy imperfectly. But this wasn’t true of the Biblical Prophets and Apostles. Deuteronomy 18:20 says, “But the prophet, which shall presume to speak a word in my name, which I have not commanded him to speak, or that shall speak in the name of other gods, even that prophet shall die.” Speaking for God is a very serious thing. To speak lies in the name of God is an offense punishable by death and yet the LDS church says, well nobody is perfect, no big deal. What makes someone a false prophet, but prophesying false things in the name of God? 

    Johnson is a smart guy, and he clearly recognizes the screaming implications of these issues that I have raised. He brings all of this full circle when he says; 

    “This brings us back to those insistent questions: if living means evolving, how can the Church be both true and evolving? If the Church changes its stance on important issues, then what makes it any truer than any other church or well-meaning organization?”

    See, Johnson gets it. How can the church be true (something settled and objective) and also be evolving (fluid and changing)? This is the million-dollar question. This would be a perfect time for Johnson to hit a grand slam in the bottom of the ninth, considering the importance of this issue. I have told many of my LDS friends that if they could give me objective reasons to believe that Mormonism is true, then I would leave the Christian church and be the most dedicated Latter-day Saint that I can possibly be. But thus far, no one has been able to give me a single objective proof for Mormonism. Let’s see if Johnson can surprise me. He answers this question by saying, “Some parts of the answer to this question can be understood only within the most private chambers of an individual seeker’s heart.” Um, what? So all thinking people both inside and outside of the LDS church recognize a clear violation of the law of non-contradiction with the idea of the church being both true and evolving and Johnson says, well you just have to listen to your heart. But what about when a person’s heart is screaming that the church isn’t true? This is the most subjective, culty answer imaginable.  

    Johnson gives four reasons why he thinks the church is true; I will save the first one until last for commentary’s sake.  

    4.  “An environment, a set of precepts, and access to the power of grace that transform us into men and women of Christ.” (yeah, because other churches don’t have that) 

    3. “Access to unique authority because of the restored priesthood and priesthood keys” (prove it) 

    2. “Covenant communities where we strive to become like Jesus while lifting and building the Saints who surround us.” (yeah, because other churches don’t have that) 

    1. “A soaring theology distinguished by sometimes subtle and sometimes radical departures from creedal Christianity and that, when taken in its entirety, offers a grand and robust set of answers to modernity’s most pressing and existential answers.” 

    This last one really got me. “A soaring theology,” “robust answers,” We can’t even get a straight answer for how the church can be both true and evolving. We can’t even get answers as to how the prophets could have been speaking and acting on behalf of God when they barred blacks from the priesthood and the temples. We can’t even get an answer as to how Joseph Smith could have been both a true prophet of God and a nympho at the same time. Are you kidding me? And the church wonders why the church is experiencing a mass exodus. They have absolutely no answers to these important questions. However, according to Johnson, Latter-day Saints should embrace these blessings of uncertainty and confusion; 

    “By opening ourselves to questions, accepting ambiguity can be for us a powerful spiritual accelerant, reminding us that certainty can stunt spiritual growth and put blinders on our ability to take in full spiritual vistas.”

    Absolute goobly gock. Certainty about the foundations of what you believe is a powerful spiritual accelerant. Just ask the Apostles, who ran scared on crucifixion day and yet, were willing to be tortured and martyred after they saw the risen Christ. 

Faith Means to Let Your Brains Fall Out and Just Love People and Stuff

    This blog review has already gotten longer than I prefer. I will wrap it up with this section. Johnson closes the book by repeatedly downplaying the importance of intellectual inquiry into the LDS faith. I mean, repeatedly. There are so many block quotes on this issue that I would have to nearly double the size of this blog to squeeze them all in. But let’s look at a few, and then have some final words.  

    “Faith is not an academic or purely cognitive exercise. Ultimately though epistemological confidence matters, such confidence is a necessary means, but not an end. We are not here on earth attempting to procure sufficient confidence in a list of certain truth claims. Rather, the truth-claims matter because prophets and scriptures are meant to draw our eyes to God, and as we come to know God, that closeness changes who we are.” 

    I can’t even pretend to completely understand this word salad. Our confidence in truth claims matters, but not really. Truth claims only really matter because it’s the prophets that are saying them. And by their truth claims that we can’t vet, and that could be wrong and be completely reversed in a few years by new decrees from new prophets, they draw us closer to God and stuff. Let’s proceed. 

    “We Should likewise take care to ensure that intellectual queries, no matter how honest or important, do not eclipse the real work of discipleship, which is more about action; loving God, and loving our fellow humans; than it is about anything strictly intellectual.”

    In other words, stop asking those pesky questions. Just trust us. Keep your heads down and be good Latter-day Saints and everything will be ok. Now who wants some cookies and Kool-Aid? What Johnson is ignoring is that statements like this are theological, which means that they require theological answers. Even statements like “love God” raise questions that require answers. Who is God? What is He like? What does He require of us? What does it mean to love God? What is love for that matter? Johnson is essentially saying don’t think, just do. Johnson continues; 

    “Faith is not ultimately about accepting cognitive premises. Rather, it is the love that kept the prodigal son’s father eagerly scanning the horizon and the fire that burned under the father’s feet as he ran to embrace his son (see Luke 15:11-32).” 

    Don’t think, just love. At this point I can’t help but wonder what Dr. Johnson has against the intellectual, especially considering that he’s a cancer doctor and a Stanford professor! He deals with objective cognitive premises every day of his life. Christ Himself told us to love the Lord with all of our mind (Mark 12:30). 

    It’s also ironic that Johnson uses the illustration of the prodigal son considering that Jesus was using this parable to teach theological truth. Christ was speaking to a crowd which included the Pharisees. The Father represents God welcoming sinners who come to Him in repentance and faith. But something that is often missed is that the elder brother was upset because this sinful brother had come home. The elder brother represented the Pharisees, a point that they would have easily recognized. Jesus was saying that the prodigal son was better off than they were because even though he left for the far country of sin, he came to the Father in repentance. The elder brother was in the far country of sin even in his father’s house. But I guess I’m thinking too much. Ok, two more quotes and I’m done, I promise. 

    “I hope that our doubts about the veracity of this or that historical or theological claim will eventually fade, not so much because we have arrived at a state of unquestioning certainty--which is often impossible and sometimes undesirable--but instead because the absolute certainty of truth-claims fades in significance when seen against the pressing need to feed the hungry, comfort the sad, welcome the refugee, and bind up the wounds of the hurting.” 

    Don’t worry about the negative or confusing historical or theological claims that the LDS church has no answers for. Just do stuff. Here is what Johnson misses with this type of epistemology. The sincerity of our faith doesn’t matter if the object of our faith is false. Our faith will never be greater than the object of our faith. So this brings us right back to square one, are the teachings of the LDS church based in reality,? Are they true? This is ground zero. The top three reasons why people are leaving the church are because they can’t get straight answers to questions that question the validity of the LDS faith. It’s as simple as that. Dr. Johnson wrote a whole book trying to address the problems without answering the questions. Instead, he suggests that people should stop asking the questions. 

    For the grand finale, the crescendo, the climax, and the encore, Johnson closes the final chapter with these words; “Believing is fired not by intellectual inquiry, but by belonging and becoming beloved…believing is simply that: love.”

    I think that Hallmark should sue Johnson for plagiarism. Seriously though, this whole book is designed to give people reasons to stay in the church, but in the end, all the reader is left with are the same old questions without answers, empty platitudes, smart-shaming, and Hallmarky cliches. This is why the LDS church should have a bumper sticker that says, “intense belief in nothing, that could change tomorrow” 

Closing Thoughts

    I hope that my motives of love and concern aren’t overshadowed by my spiritual gift of sarcasm. I just can’t stand to see people in spiritual bondage because they have been repeatedly lied to. The truth is that church can be hard because that church is standing upon the truth of the word of God and the people in the pews don’t want to hear it. However, church can also be hard because that particular church is led by false prophets who are wolves in sheep’s clothing. Church can be hard because they are consistently inconsistent in their doctrine and have no answers to the hard questions. Church can be hard because the leadership sweeps their sin under the rug and expects the members to do the same. Church can be hard because they have a false gospel that adds works to the finished work of Christ in His death, burial, and resurrection. I would say that the LDS church is hard precisely for all of the reasons except for the first one.

    Sadly, a recent survey shows that nearly 70% of people that leave the LDS church to get out of church completely. To those Latter-day Saints who are struggling, you have options. You can have Jesus without Joseph. You can have pastors who teach you, without having so-called prophets that try to control the way that you live and think. You can have certainty in the unchanging truth of God’s Word as found in the Bible. You can have a church family without all of the comrades. You can have freedom and forgiveness in Christ alone without the ordinances and authority of the LDS church.

    So much more could be said. I have written extensively on all of these issues. Please check out some of my other blog articles. And if I can help you in any way, please reach out to me. 

    In His Service, Pastor Vaughan, Ephesians 2:8-9  

Notes

1. Tyler Johnson, When Church is Hard (Deseret Book, Salt Lake City, UT, 2024)

2. Jana Riess (8 March 2024). "Who is leaving the LDS Church? Eight key survey findings". The Salt Lake Tribune. Salt Lake City, Utah. Religion News Service. Archived from the original on 9 March 2024 

3.  George Orwell, 1984 (Signet Classics, 1961)

Monday, July 29, 2024

The Great Apostasy of the "Great Apostasy"; Mormonism's Flawed Foundation


    This is the final part of a two-part blog series. You can read part one here

     The word “apostasy” is never used in any English translation of the Bible. Although the Greek word “apostasia”(ἀποστασία) is used twice. It’s translated as “forsake” in Acts 21:21, and “away” in II Thessalonians 2:3. So even though the word “apostasy” isn’t found in the Bible, the doctrine can be found in a few texts that we will dissect. Apostasy can be defined as “the abandonment or renunciation of one’s religious faith or moral allegiance.” Apostasy in the Christian sense can exist on an individual, local church, or denominational level. Here is the key to understanding Biblical apostasy and where the LDS church gets it wrong. Apostasy is the abandonment of a truth standard, not the loss of a truth standard. It’s logically impossible that apostasy could be the loss of a truth standard because, without the truth standard, there could be no way to gauge the apostasy. Think about it like this; there are very clear and strict laws against murder in the U.S. and yet the CDC reported nearly 25,000 homicides nationwide in 2022.” This is a form of apostasy because thousands of people abandoned the law in order to commit murder. No one would argue that the problem is with the law itself, but with those that broke the law. Joseph Smith’s logic would argue that the law itself had become lost or corrupted and that was the reason for all of these murders, and that he had been commissioned to rewrite the law. This is unfactual and illogical, it also doesn’t fit the definition of apostasy, but this is exactly what Smith has done with Christianity. 

What Joseph Smith taught about the Christian church wasn’t an apostasy, but an extinction of the very things that make the Christian church, the Christian church. Talmage seems to have recognized this distinction but chose to double down in support of his prophet anyway. He stated, “Let it be repeated that apostasy from the Church is insignificant as compared with the apostasy of the Church as an institution.” Talmage is committing intellectual treason with this quote. He is correct when he states that many people have apostatized from the church (the abandonment of a truth standard). However, when he claims that the church itself apostatized as an institution, he is no longer speaking of an apostasy, but an extinction. Unless he wants to wrestle with the question of which truth standard the church abandoned, and I don’t think he wanted to go there (hint: it’s the Bible, which is where will go to now). 

There are only a handful of texts in the New Testament that speak to the idea of an apostasy. One of them is I Timothy 4:1-3- “Now the Spirit speaketh expressly, that in the latter times some shall depart from the faith, giving heed to seducing spirits, and doctrines of devils; Speaking lies in hypocrisy; having their conscience seared with a hot iron; Forbidding to marry, and commanding to abstain from meats, which God hath created to be received with thanksgiving of them which believe and know the truth.” First of all, I believe that most of the time it’s a gross oversimplification to say that one verse destroys an entire belief system. But in this case, I believe that one word in this text destroys the foundation of Mormonism; the word “some.” This text states that some will depart from the faith, but not all. Contrast this with Joseph Smith stating that “all their creeds were an abomination” or “those professors were all corrupt.” How does some departing from the faith line up with what Talmage said about the church being “literally driven from the earth?”, or what McConkie said about apostasy being universal? 

Notice the appeal to a truth standard that Paul uses throughout this text. “In the latter times some with depart from the faith.” What is the faith? It’s the Christian faith that Jude said was “once delivered to the saints.” (Jude 1:3). The implication is that there would never be a need to revise or refine it because the message of the Christian faith had been perfectly delivered by the Apostles through the writings of the New Testament (more on this later). Paul doesn’t say that the Christian faith would be lost, but that some would depart from it. This is not what Smith taught. 

 “Giving heed to seducing spirits, and doctrines of devils.” Instead of surrendering to the Holy Spirit, people will give heed to Satanic spirits. Instead of surrendering to the doctrines of Christ as found in the Word of God, people will give heed to false doctrines and false teachers. This in no way implies that the Holy Spirit went into hiding or that the Word of God was lost prior to Joseph Smith, but that people departed from these things.

“Speaking lies in hypocrisy; having their conscience seared with a hot iron” Lies and hypocrisy cannot exist without the presence of a truth standard. A lie is the opposite of truth. It is a violation of the truth. Hypocrisy is the appearance of adhering to a truth standard, while actually not adhering to it. A conscience is the God-given moral compass that tells us right from wrong. But a conscience separated from an objective standard of moral truth is nothing but a subjective opinion. A seared conscience is dead to the truth. Paul isn’t even hinting at the idea that the truth of God’s word would be lost, but that people in their sinfulness would depart from it. 

“Forbidding to marry, and commanding to abstain from meats, which God hath created to be received with thanksgiving of them which believe and know the truth.” Why is wrong to forbid someone to marry? It’s because the truth standard of God’s word says, “Marriage is honourable in all, and the bed undefiled: but whoremongers and adulterers God will judge.” (Hebrews 13:4). “Whose findeth a wife findeth a good thing, and obtaineth favour of the LORD.” (Proverbs 18:22). What’s wrong with commanding someone to abstain from meats? It’s because the truth of the Word of God allows the eating of meat. 

Paul just assumes that even in the latter times there would be the existence of a truth standard, the Word of God. Even in this same chapter, Paul repeatedly encourages Timothy to combat false doctrine with God’s Word. “If thou put the brethren in remembrance of these things, thou shalt be a good minister of Jesus Christ, nourished up in the words of faith and of good doctrine, whereunto thou hast attained.” (I Timothy 4:6). “Till I come, give attendance to reading, to exhortation, to doctrine.” (I Timothy 4:13). “Meditate upon these things; give thyself wholly to them; that thy profiting may appear to all. Take heed unto thyself, and unto the doctrine; continue in them: for in doing this thou shalt both save thyself, and them that hear thee.” (I Timothy 4:15-16). Again, when we read about the great apostasy according to Joseph Smith and compare it to the departing from the faith that Paul talked about, we know that one of these things is not like the other. 

Another text that is used to teach the doctrine of apostasy is II Thessalonians 2:1-3- “Now we beseech you, brethren, by the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ, and by our gathering together unto him, That ye be not soon shaken in mind, or be troubled, neither by spirit, nor by word, nor by letter as from us, as that the day of Christ is at hand. Let no man deceive you by any means: for that day shall not come, except there come a falling away first, and that man of sin be revealed, the son of perdition.” Paul states that the second coming of Christ will not take place until after there is a great falling away from the faith. Not to belabor the point, but this language again assumes a truth standard that is departed from and not destroyed. In verse 12 of this same chapter, Paul says that those who reject the faith of Christ will be “damned” because they “believed not the truth but had pleasure in unrighteousness.” How can they be damned for rejecting a truth standard that doesn’t exist because it has been corrupted into oblivion?  

The final text that typically gets used on the subject of apostasy is II Timothy 3:1-7- “This know also, that in the last days perilous times shall come. For men shall be lovers of their own selves, covetous, boasters, proud, blasphemers, disobedient to parents, unthankful, unholy, Without natural affection, trucebreakers, false accusers, incontinent, fierce, despisers of those that are good, Traitors, heady, highminded, lovers of pleasures more than lovers of God; Having a form of godliness, but denying the power thereof: from such turn away. For of this sort are they which creep into houses, and lead captive silly women laden with sins, led away with divers lusts, Ever learning, and never able to come to the knowledge of the truth.” To be technical, the term “last days” refers to the time between the ascension of Christ and His second coming. Paul was already living in the last days when he wrote this epistle. Wickedness has always been a world staple, but what is the solution? Paul answers that very question later in this chapter. “But continue thou in the things which thou hast learned and hast been assured of, knowing of whom thou hast learned them; And that from a child thou hast known the holy scriptures, which are able to make thee wise unto salvation through faith which is in Christ Jesus. All scripture is given by inspiration of God, and is profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for instruction in righteousness: That the man of God may be perfect, throughly furnished unto all good works.” (II Timothy 3:14-17). The solution to the perilous times of the last days is to take heed to the God-breathed Scriptures. This would be impossible if, at any time throughout the period of the last days, the truths of God’s Word had been lost. 


So What Exactly Did the Church Lose?

It has been really hard to get a straight answer from most of the LDS that I have asked this question. Maybe they honestly don’t know. Maybe it’s difficult to articulate, or maybe it’s just easier to defend vague assertions over specific realities. However, in my research and reading of LDS authorities, I found that everything the LDS church claims was lost from the Christian church can be placed into one of four categories. They are Scriptural reliability, Apostolic authority, priesthood succession, and the gospel message. As Christian pastors, this makes Dave and I’s mission really simple. Disprove these four claims and it’s game over. That’s exactly what we intend to do throughout this book. 

Should we succeed in doing this, it will reveal an incredible irony. If the standard of God’s Word in the Bible hasn’t been corrupted, if the gospel message was never lost, if Apostolic authority and priesthood succession are still intact, then that means that Joseph Smith didn’t restore the truth, he rejected it. This makes Smith and the LDS church the apostates for abandoning the truth standard and principles of Christianity (I say this with nothing but love and concern in my heart). This means that Smith and the LDS prophets are the false prophets that Christ warned us about, who come in sheep’s clothing but are actually ravening wolves (Matthew 7:15). It means that the LDS church is guilty of preaching a false gospel that Paul warned us about in Galatians 1:8 (ironically warning us not to believe it, even it is delivered by an angel). It means that the teachings of the LDS church are some of the “fables” the people turn to in rejection of the truth (II Timothy 4:4). Ultimately it means that the teaching of “the great apostasy” is in fact, great apostasy.

Before I end this chapter, I thought that I would give Elder Talmage the final word; 


“If the alleged apostasy of the primitive church was not a reality, the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints is not the divine institution its name proclaims.”


I couldn’t agree more.


More to come...


Notes

1. James Talmage, The Great Apostasy (Salt Lake City, Utah, 1909)

2. Oxford English Dictionary

3. https://www.cdc.gov/nchs/fastats/homicide.htm

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