When I walk home after jogging I like to stop and chat with the Mormon or Jehovah’s Witness missionaries out doing their thing. I try to monopolize the conversation so it doesn’t turn out to be a waste of everyone’s time, if you know what I mean. I like to start with this: “Out sharing the Gospel?” Their eyes usually light up and immediately it’s like we are spiritual comrades. “Yes, we are!” they usually say, and while they are taken aback at such a friendly fellow it gives me an opportunity to continue the fun by asking: “What is the Gospel? Can you give it to me in one sentence?”
Today I did this with a couple of them and one said, very thoughtfully,
“One sentence? Hmmm…wow! Let’s see, uh…”
What would you have said? If you are a Christian, what would be your one sentence version of the Gospel of Jesus Christ?
After looking at each other for a moment trying to come up with a one sentence version of the Gospel one of them said,
“Jesus is our savior. And God loves us.”
“That’s two sentences. But you did connect them with an “and” so close enough, I’ll call it one,”
and we had a good laugh.
Of course, them being Mormons, you know there’s more to it than that. Or so we’ve been told.
I told them my one sentence version, and they really liked the sound of it:
“If you are wicked, stop doing wicked stuff, and Jesus died for you to help you, if you repent, and if you’re not wicked, Jesus died for you to help you become more like Christ. OK, that’s 3 sentences but if I let you combine your two with a conjunction to make one sentence I’m going to let me combine 3 sentences.”
We had another good laugh.
After several conversations with Mormon missionaries I know that what they are telling us isn’t all that they believe. To “get saved” is more than just, “God loves you, Jesus died for you; believe that, and you’re in.” I know this because I’ve learned that Mormons are trained sequentially and a missionary straight out of high school isn’t privy to all that they believe. Well, OK, that also is what I was told by the same apologists for the Christian faith trying to explain why they are a cult. Apologists rarely present an accurate picture of anything they are trying to disprove. I do like to get it from the horse’s mouth, whenever possible.
After spending some time with a Mormon attorney who no doubt knew more about his faith than your average missionary straight out of high school I’m even less convinced that what I’ve been told about what they really believe (that the missionaries don’t even know), was at all accurate. I’m guessing that lawyer understood it better than all of us, and he told me,
“God loves us, Jesus died for us, believe that and you’re in. That’s it. Nothing else needs to be added.”
Be that as it may, how we as Christians present the Gospel is my concern for this post. I wouldn’t be surprised if your one sentence version is exactly the same as theirs: “God loves us and Jesus is our Savior.”
But here’s the thing. Just as what they said might not be the whole story, like you might also need to get baptized in their church to be acceptable to God ( the same thing the Roman Catholic church teaches, BTW), your one sentence version is incomplete. It doesn’t tell the whole story. I’ve been an Evangelical long enough to know there’s a lot more to this than just that. You’re one sentence doesn’t tell us all we need to know to get saved.
How so?
Continue reading on my blog article The Protestant Gospel Will Lag Behind the Mormon Gospel
