On Saturday night, April 11, 2009 I was amazed to see a video from the head Apostle of the Mormon Church of Latter Day Saints. During my lifetime, Mormonism has changed much. Instead of the cult that Joseph Smith founded, many Mormons think of themselves as just another Protestant denomination of Christianity. Unless you have some familiarity with Mormon doctrine, it was almost impossible to distinguish this man from any other clergy of Christianity. As a matter of fact, I agreed with almost everything he had to say about Jesus and what he did. Take a look.
After seeing this, you may wonder why I'd bother to post about this if I agree with so much about what the man has said. Two reasons. One: It is important that we do not allow ourselves to be confused. Mormonism is not Christianity. Here is a videos that I think do a great job showing how different Mormon doctrine is.
And two: The talk about God the Father turning his back on Jesus while Jesus was on the cross. It's not damnable heresy. It preaches well, but it really sticks in my craw because it is saying something the Bible does not say. Many people who teach this viewpoint say that God turned His back on Jesus because God is too holy to look upon sin and all the sins of humanity were on Christ during His crucifixion. My problem is two fold. If God cannot look on sin, then He would not be able to look on any of us. And Jesus was not saying that His father had forsaken him when the Bible say in Matthew 27:46 and Mark 15:34:
About the ninth hour Jesus cried out in a loud voice, "Eloi, Eloi, lama sabachthani?"—which means, "My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?"
What I have learned that in the day and culture of Jesus on Earth, if you wanted to call attention to a passage in the Old Testament, all you had to is quote the first sentence and then everyone will know you are talking about the whole passage. You see Jesus was quoting Psalm 22. If you read the Psalm you will find a perfect description of everything Jesus experienced - written 1000 years earlier! And it you read that Psalm you will see that the one who is suffering is vindicated and triumphs! Truly powerful. I'm resisting the temptation to copy and paste the Psalm in this post. I will hotlink to it instead.
For another perspective on Mormons, members of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints, you should check out http://mormanity.blogspot.com/
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