Refiner's Fire Ministries

Centerplace.org has a forum where people of the RLDS/Reformation/sometimes CofC persuasion can go and commiserate about the mysteries of the churches which Joseph Smith spawned. At this time there is an ongoing discussion about how to witness to poor, deluded evangelical Christians: those who don’t have the “fullness of the Gospel.” One gentleman has been attending a Baptist church and isn’t sure how to approach the pastor or congregation about their abysmal missing link. In his words, and I hope I don’t break any copyright laws, “I have felt a very good Spirit in many of the services, and Brother (name removed) is a very humble, passionate, sincere and dedicated servant of the Lord. It has helped me get beyond all those negative experiences, and it has helped me to grow spiritually, as well. I came to the realization that even though these folks didn't have the Fullness of the Everlasting Gospel, they did have some light, and they were doing the very best they could with that portion of the Gospel that they did have. I realized also that it is only through a sense of charity that I was able to recognize this, and I'm thankful that my eyes were opened to this fact.” (Emphasis mine)

Is this how I felt about Christians while I was entrenched in the Joseph Smith church? Probably. I tried logging in to ask a question or two, but it’s been nearly three years since I was last on that forum and I think I have been kicked out. The questions I was asking at that time were making some people unhappy. They wouldn’t send me my password so I’m pretty sure I’m kaput where they are concerned.

So I Googled “Fullness of the Gospel” and found a website (LDS) which describes “The Preparatory Gospel and the Fullness of the Gospel” using the Doctrine and Covenants and the Book of Mormon, with one or two references to Matthew 1: 4, 8. To be honest I tried to read through it. I really did. It seems the “Preparatory” Gospel is administered by the Aaronic priesthood and the “Fullness” is administered by the Melchizedek priesthood. I’m not making this up. It got so convoluted that I got a cramp in my brain and had to stop reading. No wonder those people are so confused!

I found another website (also LDS) in which the writer states that even though you receive Christ, and are baptized, if you do not “endure to the end” you will be cast out of God’s presence. Somehow the Gospel message gets derailed between the Book of Mormon and the Doctrine and Covenants. The Jesus Christ who supposedly visited the people in the New World after His resurrection doesn’t resemble in any way the Jesus Christ of the Bible. It seems like this is just another way Joseph Smith made it up as he went along. What didn’t make it to the Book of Mormon somehow, through a profuse number of revelations after its publication, made it to the Doctrine and Covenants.

How convenient. Another book to cover your shortcomings. How blessed we are to have just one book: The Holy Bible, which has been around for centuries, translated into hundreds of languages but never losing its original meaning. One need only go to the original Hebrew or Greek to confirm the truth of the Gospel.

Nelson’s New Illustrated Bible Dictionary (Thank you, Refiner’s Fire) describes Gospel as “The joyous good news of salvation in Jesus Christ.” Furthermore, it states, “The gospel is not a new plan of salvation; it is the fulfillment of God’s plan of salvation that was begun in Israel, was completed by Jesus Christ, and is made known by the church.”

“But I fear, lest by any means, as the serpent beguiled Eve through his subtilty, so your minds should be corrupted from the simplicity that is in Christ. For if he that cometh preacheth another Jesus, whom we have not preached, or if ye receive another spirit, which ye have not received, or another gospel, which ye have not accepted, ye might well bear with him.” II Corinthians 11:3-4. (KJV) How much clearer can it get?

The savior, the spirit, and the gospel which the followers of Joseph Smith are so proud of are an illusion. The church which Joseph Smith started in 1830 is no church at all. He created it all with a stone, which, by the way, he stole, plus a bunch of hocus-pocus. Satan didn’t stop with Eve; he was just getting started. Just as Eve was conned by the devil, so the adherents of the Smith gospel are being conned every day.

It is experiences such as the peek at the Center Place forum that drive home the fact that these people are so entrenched in false doctrine that they are incapable of seeing truth. Sometimes I wonder just what will get through to them. My intellectual self tells me that only God through His Holy Spirit can get through; my emotional self says I need to beat them over the head with the real Bible. I think it’s just as well the forum didn’t send me my password. Speaking the truth in love is not my strong suit.

As someone once said, “When all else fails, read the instructions.” If we don’t have scripture ready to back up what we say it’s not going to work. Above all, if we don’t pray about it it’s not going to work, either.

In His amazing love

Jan