Foreword

     taken from "A Biblical Defense of Mormonism"

    
     I had never met a Born Again Christian until right before I went on my mission.  I was working at a small Christian thrift shop, trying to earn enough money to afford serving a two year mission for my church when I turned nineteen.  There were people of several different faiths working with me, and many of them knew I was Mormon, yet no one ever treated me differently because of it.

     Then a man named Tim began volunteering on a regular basis.  He and I worked together frequently, driving in the company truck to pick up donations.  Eventually we came to the point where I felt comfortable asking him the big question: which faith had he chosen in his life?

     He answered that he was non-denominational.  I was certain I had heard him wrong so I asked again.  His answer remained the same.  I was confused beyond regular confusion, I was discombobulated.  I had heard of Lutherans, Baptists, Presbyterians, and Methodists; but what on earth was a non-denomination?  I tried asking him in subtle, round-about ways, but my inquiries were never answered the way I wanted.

     As I neared my goal of serving a mission, Tim began to talk to me about my faith.  He told me Mormonism was a false religion and tried to persuade me not to go.  I could see that his opinion was negative toward my church, and everyone was entitled to their opinion.  I believed my church was a good Christian one, and so I turned in my mission papers anyway.

     In time I received my mission call and learned I would be going to the Anaheim California area for two years to preach the gospel.  I told everyone at work and they were very supportive.  Surprisingly, no one was more enthusiastic than Tim.  As it turned out California was ripe with his kind of Christians, "Born Agains".  He assured me that if I happened to run into them they would be happy to answer any questions I had.

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     Once in California I did run into them, all the time.  But they were not happy to talk to me, or to see me.  Unfortunately they didn't want anything to do with a Mormon missionary and they weren't always polite in saying so.  My view of Born Again Christians plummeted to the lowest of lows.

     I had been serving in Yorba Linda for three months when something seemingly insignificant happened.  My companion, Elder Mitchell, felt something urge him to go down a certain street.  He followed the prompting and turned onto the road with his bike.  He found no one there to preach to, no logical reason to be there at all, and worse still, his tire slipped into a crack in the sidewalk where it got covered in thorns and instantly went flat.

     In The Book of Mormon there is a passage that states: Now ye may suppose that this is foolishness is me; but behold I say unto you, that by small and simple things are great things brought to pass; and small means in many instances doth confound the wise.  And the Lord God doth work by means to bring about his great and eternal purposes; and by very small means the Lord doth confound the wise and bringeth about the salvation of many souls (Alma 37:6-7).  At the time Elder Mitchell and I simply thought we were unlucky, but we hadn't stopped to think what God could do with something as trivial as a flat tire.

     The next morning we walked our bikes uphill to the nearest bike shop.  As we traveled on foot we passed a man on the other side of the street, talking on his cell phone.  When he saw us he called out, "You guys are Mormon missionaries right?  Please come and talk to me, I haven't talked to Mormons in a long time!"

     The man showed us into a room and excused himself momentarily.  As we stood there we realized we were not in an ordinary home.  The room was filled with tables and computers, and the walls were covered with shelves full of religious texts of all kinds.  Soon the man returned with a friend, sat us down with some water, and introduced himself as Ed Enochs.  Ed, it turned out, was an Evangelical scholar who attended Calvary Chapel.  He wasted no time in beginning the conversation with, "Before you guys start telling me how Joseph Smith was a prophet and the church was restored, I have three questions for you: who is God, are you saved by faith or works, and where do you get your authority?"

     During our conversation I learned that "Born Again Christian" is just another name for an Evangelical, just like "Mormon" is another name for a Latter-day Saint.  But Ed was different from the other Born Agains I'd met; he actually took the time to talk to us, and unlike Tim he used to the Bible to form his arguments rather than vain opinion.  I was in for the discussion of my life, with a very intelligent man, showing me arguments I had never dreamt existed.

     This lasted for three hours.  Apparently talking to two helpless, unknowledgeable missionaries was so much fun, Ed decided he wanted to do it again.  He said he worked with a lot of college-aged students who didn't know much about Mormonism.  He proposed we set up a time to meet at Starbucks with five or so college students so we could tell them about Mormonism, and afterwards Ed and his friend would say a few words to them.  What could I do?  My head was spinning with all the new information I'd just received, but I accepted their invitation and we exchanged phone numbers.

     On the way home Elder Mitchell and I didn't talk much.  Our discussion with Ed had left me utterly convinced that The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints was a fraud.  This saddened me quite a bit, because my family and friends believed fervently in the Church; and I couldn't believe they had fallen prey to such trickery.  But something positive also resulted from our debate.  Ed had a passionate testimony of the Bible as God's word, a conviction which far exceeded my own.  The way he believed and spoke of the Bible made me believe more than ever that it truly was God's word, and a tool which could be used to discern truth.  A new desire entered my heart; the desire to know once and for all, from the Bible, whether or not Mormonism was true.  That same night Ed called to say ten students had already expressed interest in attending our little dialogue.

     I began studying the Bible in a way I had never studied anything before.  It became an obsession.  I had to know the truth like I needed to breathe, and every open moment of every day was spent reading as much of it as possible.  It is a strange thing to relate, that during my time of need God was aware of me, although I was a mere nineteen-year-old boy.  As I studied I felt the Lord's hand leading me to different passages of scripture that I needed to see.  Time and time again the Bible answered my questions by providing verses that supported my faith as a Latter-day Saint.  I couldn't believe it.  I had been so certain I would find more opposition to my religion that it came as a numbing shock when I discovered otherwise.   

     We kept in close contact with Ed.  We struck a deal where one week they would visit our church and the next we would visit theirs.  Soon after that we would have our dialogue.  As fate would have it Elder Mitchell and I ended up being the primary speakers in Sacrament Meeting the week they came to visit us.  I stood at the pulpit when it was my turn to speak and addressed the topic of James chapter 2, which teaches that faith without works is dead.

     After Sacrament Meeting we went to Sunday school with Ed and a few Born Again Christian friends he brought.  In the middle of class they began asking the teacher, Kari Laitinen, who was also our ward mission leader, difficult questions.  I held my breath and bowed my head.  I wondered silently if I had made a mistake by bringing these people here to disrupt church.  But our ward mission leader answered their inquiries individually and in turn asked them questions that had no easy answer.  I was surprised again, realizing for the first time that there were people in my church who were smart enough to go toe to toe with the elite of Evangelical Christianity.

     After class Ed pulled Elder Mitchell and me aside to tell us there would probably be up to twenty people at our dialogue.  He also told us he liked Kari and would like him to come, so we introduced him to Ed and invited him to our discussion.  He said he would love to come.  We decided to meet at our church for it, after all a coffee shop was no place for two Mormon missionaries.  It was a relief on our part to have someone so scholarly on our side.  I was also fascinated to learn that Ed and his friends were not out to pummel us with their oversized brains, but were actually interested in a fair debate.

     The next week we went to Calvary Chapel.  Ed was kind enough to escort us around, and was actually very protective of us.  So there I was with my missionary companion, sitting in my first ever Protestant worship service.  It was a decent sized congregation, with probably a hundred or so Evangelicals in attendance.  Someone passed out a flyer advertizing the upcoming Mormon/Evangelical dialogue and the pastor started the meeting by inviting everyone to come.  I felt sick to my stomach knowing suddenly that so many people were invited.  This changed everything.  And what was more the flyer depicted two people at podiums with one pointing at the other as though in a heated argument.  Elder Mitchell shook his head and whispered, "What have we done?"

     Kari, Elder Mitchell, and I planned what we would do the night of the dialogue.  I would speak first on the restoration of the gospel.  Elder Mitchell would follow with the commitments Latter-day Saints make.  The two assistants to the mission president had also volunteered to help and would discuss the plan of salvation.  Finally, Kari would conduct a question and answer session.

     Then the phone calls began.  Missionaries in other cities began calling to say they had come across someone with a flyer, and they wanted to know what this dialogue was all about.  Elder Mitchell and I came across people with flyers more and more frequently in Yorba Linda too.  The subject of the dialogue seemed to bring a mixed reaction from the Latter-day Saints we mentioned it to.  Half of them liked the idea.  The rest were appalled, thinking this was some kind of trap where we would be cornered and persecuted.  Luckily Kari Laitinen became close friends with Ed, and together they were able to establish a few rules for the upcoming discussion: both sides would share their stance without any abasement of the other, the Evangelicals would speak first, and lastly, participants in the question and answer session would write their questions on cards, from which both sides would choose which questions to answer.

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     The night before the dialogue Ed called to say he anticipated a hundred people showing up.  We suspected this number was an exaggeration on his part.  We thought seventy five was a much more realistic number.  That night a dream troubled me.  I dreamt I was in the church gym and it was so packed with people that we had to go somewhere else; so Kari, Elder Mitchell, and I boarded a plane to Salt Lake City to ask the prophet for permission to use the tabernacle as a meeting hall.

     Then the big night came.  After practicing our speeches over and over, we set up a hundred and twenty chairs, just in case Ed was right.  The thought sent shivers down my spine.  Eventually Ed and his friends showed up and began setting up more chairs.  Apparently he was serious that a large group was coming.  Those of us who were participating in the dialogue went to a small room to pray and discuss the overall plan one more time.

     When I went to sit on stage an unexpected spectacle awaited me.  The entire gym was full!  The final count ended up being some three hundred people seated with several more lining the walls and out in the hallways.  Video cameras had also been set up in the aisles.  That was probably the biggest scare of my young life.  The Evangelicals went first and spent a good deal of time discussing the flawlessness of the Holy Bible.

     Then it was my turn.  I rose and walked shakily to the stand, but somehow as I looked over the multitude I felt a great calm settle over me.  I rehearsed the story of Christ coming and setting up his church, and how there had been a great apostasy.  I explained that Joseph Smith had been called to be a prophet in these latter days, and that I firmly believed The Book of Mormon to be the word of God.  "I am not ashamed of my beliefs," I told them, "but don't take my word for it.  Out in the foyer we have boxes filled with The Book of Mormon.  Please take one when you leave, read it, and ask God if it is true.  You will get an answer."  I sat down.

     The rest of the program went well.  It felt good to be there, talking about the gospel in a spirit of friendship with these people.  As the meeting came to a close Kari suggested doing another dialogue at Calvary Chapel over the stand.  Thunderous applause erupted and a man in the audience yelled out, "Good idea!"  When the meeting finished nobody wanted to leave.

     We spent some time mingling with the audience.  Everyone was appreciative of us inviting them to our building.  A woman came looking for me in the crowd and told me something I will never forget.  "You were so cute talking up there.  I kept hearing the Lord tell me 'I love him, I love him'.  I was crying the whole time!"  Upon leaving we noticed that every Book of Mormon, at least three boxes worth, had been taken.  Everywhere I looked, there were Evangelicals talking to Mormon missionaries.  It was an amazing night that left a lasting impression in my mind.

     The dialogues continued.  The next one took place a few months later.  This time six hundred people met at Calvary Chapel.  Then a third one took place in Anaheim.  Robert Millet and Pastor Greg Johnson flew down from Salt Lake City to address a crowd of over a thousand.  Truly the Lord is able to make wonders out of small things, even flat tires.

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     Near the end of my mission I returned to Yorba Linda.  Instead of the rude accusations I had received almost two years earlier, my companion and I were welcomed into Born Again homes and treated like Christians.  In these welcoming situations we were able to discuss the Savior's influence in our lives and feel the Spirit in great abundance.

     I talked with Ed one night before returning home to Texas.  He pulled me aside and said, "Something happened at that first dialogue.  Everyone there came to the conclusion that you are one of the elect."  He then admitted to me his belief that all this had happened for a reason; that I was supposed to come to California, talk to him, and do the dialogues.  I couldn't agree more; and if one Mormon can be God's elect, then why not thousands of Mormons?  Why not a majority of the LDS Church?  We do, after all, confess Christ as the Son of God and the Savior, which Paul gives as a qualifier for salvation.  Romans 10:9 That if thou shalt confess with thy mouth the Lord Jesus, and believe in thine heart that God hath raised him from the dead, thou shalt be saved.

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     I believe the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints is true with all my heart, and as a result I want to share my convictions with anyone inclined to listen.  I've seen some Latter-day Saints get into heated arguments with Evangelicals over the Bible, and I want to get as far away from that as possible because frankly, it's a waste of time.  Say for example, that I was to engage in this kind of coversation with Ed.  First, I might pull out Exodus 33 and show how Moses saw God's back parts.  Ed might respond with Colossians 1:15, which calls God invisible.  Then I could turn to Genesis 1:26-27 which teaches we are made in God's image.  Then Ed would turn to John 4:24 which says God is a Spirit.  I would appeal to The Acts 7 where Stephen sees both the Father and the Son, and he would use John 10 to determine they are one.  Although opponents caught in this kind of verse-stacking Bible bash may appear to be at odds, they are actually in agreement that the Bible is a contradictory document.  However, since the Bible isn't contradictory it's the duty of Bible believers to understand its unified message, rather than pick and choose verses that best support their cause.

     My goal for this book is to give a fair account of Evangelical and LDS doctrines, show precisely where we agree and where we differ, and ultimately, to show how the Bible supports LDS doctrine while remaining consistent as a whole.