Keith chats with the Mormons

Keith Walker is a missionary to those trapped in cults. He loves it when they come to his door. Here is an excerpt from a great report.

Although we spoke about many other things, there was another important issue that I want to discuss here. Elder J. paraphrased numerous verses in both the Bible and Book of Mormon. One of them was Matthew 7:20- Wherefore by their fruits ye shall know them. The context is speaking of how to identify false prophets, but rarely does a Mormon know that. Elder J. said that we could determine the truth of things by examining it's fruit. In this case he said that we could examine Joseph Smith and the Book of Mormon.

He then transitioned into telling us to pray about the Book of Mormon to find out if it is true. Prior to this discussion, I never had thought about these two ideas as a contrast. I asked, "If we are to test the truthfulness of a religion or person by examining their fruit, why are we told to pray about the Book of Mormon?" Elder J. said that God wanted us to try for ourselves but once we get to a place where we need help, we can ask God. He gave an illustration of our daughter asking for help with a math problem. As a good father I want our daughter to try and figure it out for herself, but once she gets stuck, she can ask me for help.

I started talking about how I like the idea of examining fruit, but that I also thought that praying about the truthfulness of Mormonism is a misuse of prayer. For instance, if Elder J. didn't study for his math exam and just asked God for the answers, God is not obligated to give him the answers. Both LDS missionaries agreed with me on this point. I took it a step farther and gave him a scenario.

"If one of the sister missionaries from temple square told you that God told her to have a physical relationship with you before marriage, and that to know the truthfulness of her revelation, all you need to do is pray about it, would you pray about it?" He admitted that he would not pray about it because God has already spoken about this and he knows that it would be wrong. I give this illustration to Mormons often and it helps them to see that prayer can be misused.