Pastor Shawn McCraney of Born Again Mormon Ministries first contacted us. The following is our exchange of emails.          Back to Articles

May 31, 2006

Tracy,

June 16, 2006

Dear Shawn,   

I appreciate you taking the time to respond to my article. I’m sure you get many emails which require your attention and your time is valuable. I understand from your website that you use the term “’Mormon’ as a Jew uses the word Jew, and a woman uses the term Woman.” While that may be the connotation you have given the word “Mormon,” it is not the proper denotation, nor what the general public thinks of when it hears “Mormon.” A person is born a Jew by heredity (unless, of course, he is a proselyte). A Woman is born female by genetics, not choice. Being Mormon is a “faith choice,” not a cultural appellation. I can appreciate what you are trying to convey when you use the term “Mormon,” however, “Born-Again Mormon” is both a misnomer and an oxymoron.

Once a Mormon comes to a saving knowledge of the biblical Jesus Christ, he is no longer a Mormon. He is spiritually born into the family of God and becomes a “new creation” in Christ. To label oneself a Mormon after becoming a Christian, would be like a Corinthian in Paul’s day continuing to identify himself as a Pagan. The two terms are incompatible.

The problem with your approach to reach Latter-day Saints from the “inside out,” is not your motives or your heart for the Mormon people. You seem to be a genuine, caring individual. The problem is that your approach is not biblical. It doesn’t matter what I think or what you think; it matters what God has already said on the subject. He has commanded believers to come out from among the pagans; to be separate. To continue fellowship in the LDS Church and promote the social aspects of Mormonism while rejecting its doctrines for the sake of influencing Mormons is basically telling God that His program does not work. It is telling Him, in essence, that His ability to reach the lost is insufficient and we must do things our way because we’ve improved on His word and method.

God is not willing that any should perish, yet even with His all-consuming love for people He does not send anyone into the temples of idols to preach the gospel of salvation. Nowhere in the New Testament do we find the apostles attending pagan services in order to convert people from within. We don’t see the apostle Paul---who was specifically sent to the Gentiles---regularly attending the temple of Diana or Artemus to do a little “lifestyle evangelism.”

In addition, quite frankly, it is dishonest to actively attend a Mormon Church participating in its rituals when one does not believe. To partake of the Mormon sacrament is to renew the covenants made at baptism into the Mormon Church. The Mormon sacrament represents allegiance to the Mormon Jesus, which, according to the Apostle Paul, is “another Jesus” (2 Cor. 11:3-5). President Gordon B. Hinckley’s own words also testify that the Jesus of Mormonism is not the Jesus of Christianity (Church News, June 20, 1998, p.7).

Regarding the sacrament, the LDS Church’s official position on this is that only worthy members may partake. “Apostates and unrepentant members of the Church thus reap damnation by mocking God in unworthily partaking of the sacrament” (Bruce R. McKonkie, Mormon Doctrine, 1966, p.661). Again, it does not matter what a “born-again Mormon” thinks as far as whether or not he considers himself an apostate. The fact that he rejects Mormon doctrines and teachings makes him an apostate in the eyes of Mormon authorities, i.e., the LDS prophets and apostles.

Throughout the Old and New Testaments we see example after example of true believers separating themselves from neighboring unbelieving nations and the pagan practices around them. In Ezra, chapters 9 and 10, we see Israelites repenting of their unholy unions with unbelievers by sending away their pagan wives and children. The New Testament saints were commanded not to yoke themselves with unbelievers (2 Corinthians 6:14). This is precisely what you are doing when you continue to support, encourage, and partake of activity in the Mormon Church. A disciple of Christ does not partake from both the “Lord’s supper and the table of demons.”

Are not those who eat of the sacrifices partakers of the altar? ^What am I saying then? That an idol is anything, or what is offered to idols is anything? Rather, that the things which the Gentiles sacrifice they sacrifice to demons and not to God, and I do not want you to have fellowship with demons. You cannot drink the cup of the Lord and the cup of demons; you cannot partake of the Lord’s Table and of the table of demons. Or do we provoke the Lord to jealousy? Are we stronger than He? (1 Cor. 10:18-22).

Christians are not to worship alongside of pagans. God detested idolatry so much, that He commanded that the Jews should “make no mention of the name of other gods, nor let it be heard from [their] mouths” (Exodus 23:13). When a person sings the LDS hymns, partakes of LDS sacrament, prays with the class or congregation, he is counted among those calling on the names of other gods! The “Heavenly Father (Elohim)” being prayed to in Mormon meetings is not the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. The “Jesus” in whose name Mormons pray is not Jesus of the Bible. True disciples do not follow the biblical Jesus in their minds while following false gods with their feet!

I find it exciting and inspiring how disciples were made. As you may know, Jewish children were schooled in the Torah from a very young age. The Jews’ lives revolved around synagogue. The rabbi would sit in the seat of Moses and read the Torah. He would carefully unroll the scroll on which scripture was written and hold it up for the people to see. They would reach out and touch the scroll, then touch their lips and cry out, “His word is sweet!” The Jews loved the synagogue because that is where God’s word was! Is God’s word being taught in LDS Chapels? Emphatically, NO!

Many young men wanted to be disciples, but only a few were chosen. A rabbi would choose a boy with unusual ability and passion. This boy (usually a teenager) would then leave everything he had and follow, literally, “in the dust of the rabbi;” meaning that he became the rabbi’s shadow until he learned all he could from his teacher.

Jesus did not go among the learned or well-to-do. He did not go to those with special talents or abilities. Instead, he went to ordinary people; fishermen, tax collectors, those who didn’t have what it took to “make the grade.” He sought these men out and directed, “Come! Follow me!” These men left everything behind to follow in Jesus’ footsteps! The cry of a disciple’s heart was, “I want to be in my walk with God just like the rabbi!” It took a deep level of commitment, of consuming passion even, to be a “talmid;” a disciple.

Shawn, remember this; “You did not choose Jesus. He chose you.” Do you have the passion, the level of commitment, the willingness to separate yourself from among the heathen and follow Him? What greater example for Mormons to see than someone who leaves error for truth in an uncompromising way! The student is not above his teacher, Shawn! We cannot say our way is better than His! God has set the standard;

Do not be unequally yoked together with unbelievers. For what fellowship has righteousness with lawlessness? And what communion has light with darkness? ^And what accord has Christ with Belial? Or what part has a believer with an unbeliever? And what agreement has the temple of God with idols? For you are the temple of the living God. As God has said:

“I will dwell in them and walk among them. I will be their God, and they shall be My people.”

Therefore,

“Come out from among them and be separate, says the Lord. Do not touch what is unclean, and I will receive you.” (2 Cor. 6:14-17)

Shawn, Jesus is calling you to be His disciple. Will you follow Him? Will you leave the darkness and cleave to the light? Consider that Lot’s wife looked back toward Sodom, where her heart was. There were serious consequences. After being turned into a pillar of salt, she could not go back to Sodom, nor could she go forward to deliverance. Staying in the Mormon Church after being warned to flee is folly. Even if “born-again Mormons” do not believe in Mormonism, sadly, they are like lot’s wife; never quite able to “go back,” yet unable to move forward into the life prepared for true Disciples of Christ. Jesus warned, “No one, having put his hand to the plow, and looking back, is fit for the kingdom of God” (Luke 9:62).

Of course you may do as you wish; you can evangelize any way you choose, but know this, and I say this with as much gentleness and respect as possible; you are leading people into error. You are causing those tender in their faith and biblical understanding to sin. You are going contrary to what scripture admonishes, instructs, and warns.

I pray you will have the courage to leave the false comfort of fellowship in the Mormon Church for the security of true discipleship as a Christian.

June 17, 2006

Shawn,

Thank you for your quick reply. I really do appreciate it. You said; "I could send you in return ample scriptural justifications, taken in context, that support our methods.  But this is a waste of my time and yours."

I understand your time is valuable. I would appreciate you sending me your scriptural justifications in context supporting your methods at your earliest convenience. If there are things I have not yet learned or understood from scripture, I am anxious to be made aware of these things.

 If I have taken scripture out of context---and I don't believe I have---I would appreciate it if you would point it out; not so I can argue, but so I can re-examine what I've said in light of your understanding and see if I have erred in any way.

I try to be careful to not misapply scripture; however, I don't consider myself beyond reproach. If you feel I've been wrong, I would like the opportunity to see if I stand in need of correction. I may not come to the same conclusion as you, but we may have to just "agree to disagree."

IF I use your email, I will honor your request in posting it in its entirety. I look forward to your reply. I don't think it will be a waste of my time.

Warm regards,