My wife and I had some guests over for dinner last night and a friend of ours brought two of his Mormon missionary friends. We had an opportunity to have an in-depth discussion about their faith and what they share with people. They will usually leave people and ask them to pray to the Lord for confirmation that their message is true based on James 1:5. After they had left, I pulled my Bible out and turned to James 1. Here is what I found:
James, a servant of God and of the Lord Jesus Christ, To the twelve tribes in the Dispersion: Greetings.
Count it all joy, my brothers, when you meet trials of various kinds, for you know that the testing of your faith produces steadfastness. And let steadfastness have its full effect, that you may be perfect and complete, lacking in nothing.
If any of you lacks wisdom, let him ask God, who gives generously to all without reproach, and it will be given him. But let him ask in faith, with no doubting, for the one who doubts is like a wave of the sea that is driven and tossed by the wind. For that person must not suppose that he will receive anything from the Lord; he is a double-minded man, unstable in all his ways.
Immediately upon reading this I was struck by what this text is saying. After his salutation, James begins this letter with the words “Count it all joy, my brothers.” He does not address just anyone. The context here tells us that this letter is addressed only to believers. We must then apply this when we get to verse 5:
If any of you lacks wisdom, let him ask God, who gives generously to all without reproach, and it will be given him.
Who is it asking for wisdom? Is it an unbeliever who has just met a Mormon missionary? No! It is a believer. There is not a promise of wisdom to the unbeliever. In fact, James goes on to say:
But let him ask in faith, with no doubting, for the one who doubts is like a wave of the sea that is driven and tossed by the wind. For that person must not suppose that he will receive anything from the Lord; he is a double-minded man, unstable in all his ways.
To expect this faith from an unbeliever is naive and Biblically unsound. 2 Corinthians 4:3 speaks of the gospel being veiled to those who are perishing, and goes on to say in verse 4 that, “…the god of this world has blinded the minds of the unbelievers, to keep them from seeing the light of the gospel of the glory of Christ…” The Devil is the god of this world, not that he is actually a god, but in the sense that his purposes are ultimately being served by all who do not serve Christ.
Why does James call people to ask for wisdom? Verse 5 is in direct response to verses 2 through 4, which speak of the various trials believers will face. This wisdom is a necessary provision that God makes to His saints for times of trouble.
A Mormon may choose to argue that they are asking believers to ask for wisdom in faith, but unless we foolishly believe that everyone they urge to pray for confirmation is a believer already (which their church would deny) this argument does not hold water. The Mormon prayer is based on proof-texting of a passage that upon careful study reveals a deep issue for a very foundational technique in Mormon evangelism.
For more information on Mormonism, two helpful sites I have found are:
http://www.irr.org
and
http://www.utlm.org
Excellent post: the main issue is that Mormon missionary efforts rest on the *feeling* of confirmation of truth. This is obviously dangerous for the unbeliever as they are still bound up in their sinful nature…what they want to be true is usually opposite to what is true in Christ! This is also dangerous for the immature believer…we want a big, fuzzy, teddy-bear Jesus and a warm grandfatherly God who lets us “just love people” and accept the good and nice things we try to do.
Again, thanks for this insight!
Andrew, surely you’re not suggesting that Mormons have taken this scripture out of context, are you?
You can argue this with them until you’re blue in the face – they won’t buy it. Why? B/c apart from what you said being correct, for them to admit it would mean that one of their main reasons (apart from Moroni 10:3) for offering the “prayer of confirmation” to non-Mormons is gone, b/c contextually, it doesn’t support what they say. At that point, you’re asking the Mormons to deny what they teach. You have a better chance of winning the lottery the next 5 times you play it, with the same numbers each time, than you do of that happening.
That being said, I agree with you completely.
Brad,
It may not work often, but it’s true. My hope is that these young men I met will be confronted over and over with the truth and choose Christ. I told one of the missionaries that he needed to spend more time in the Bible. For both of them, the biblical knowledge was lacking. They admitted it was because they spent so much time in the Book of Mormon. The truth will set you free, Jesus said.
Andrew