Now, I
had a fight with a missionary companion once because he said that Latter-day
Saints are the only ones who can feel the Spirit. And I said, “nu-uh”, and he
said, “uh-huh”, and I said, “nu-uh”, and he said, “uh-huh”, and I said,
“nu-uh”, and that’s how missionaries fight.
And I
said, “Look, if they can’t feel the Spirit, what do they feel on Christmas Eve
when they’re singing Silent Night, and the little kids are all dressed in
bathrobes doing the manger scene? What do they feel?” He says, “The spirit of
the devil”. I said, “No! You can’t feel the spirit of the devil when little
kids are dressed in bathrobes! You can’t feel the little spirit of the devil
when they’re singing ‘Silent Night’!”
I really enjoy watching nature programmes.
God’s creation is amazing. Recently, my son invited me to see an event called
Planet Earth II Live. It was amazing. Along with a couple of thousand people,
we watched clips from Planet Earth II on a massive screen and there, to play
alongside the action, was a live Philharmonic Orchestra. It was truly spectacular,
and I was genuinely moved. But at no point did I believe that what I felt was
generated by the presence of the Holy Spirit. You see it is possible to feel
moved, warmed, cheered etc. by a whole host of things.
Just as people may ‘feel’ something when they
sing Silent Night, and see little kids in a nativity scene, so Mormons may ‘feel’
something, when they pray, go to the Temple, or read the Book of Mormon. None of
these so-called ‘feelings’ prove that the Holy Spirit is at work in their
lives. Feelings can come from a variety of sources.
The Spirit of Truth
“If you love me, you will keep my commandments. And I will ask the Father, and he will give you
another Helper, to be with you forever, even the Spirit of truth, whom the
world cannot receive, because it neither sees him nor knows him. You know him,
for he dwells with you and will be in you. (John 14:15-17)
Jesus promised his disciples
that He would send them a helper, whom He called the ‘Spirit of truth’. Now
here is my question to Brad. Does the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day
Saints teach truth? Of course, he would say yes, but when Mormon teaching is
tested against historic, orthodox Christianity, the answer is clearly ‘no’.
Therefore, whatever Mormons ‘feel’ it is not the Spirit of truth. For He leads
into all truth. (John 16:13)
Notice also that Jesus
said that ‘the world cannot receive him, because it neither sees him nor
knows him’. I would suggest then that whatever the non-LDS Silent Night
singers are feeling, is also not the Spirit of truth, unless of course they are
born again believers in the Lord Jesus Christ.
If they are not feeling
the Spirit, then what are they feeling? I would suggest it is either a human
feeling which arises in the heart often caused by an external event (like hearing
a Philharmonic Orchestra) or the perhaps the devil. Now, I’m sure Brad would
want to say to me ‘nu-huh’ but I would return a ‘uh-huh’.
The Holy Spirit and The
Holy Ghost
What
my companion was trying to say is that we do have something that sets
us apart, but it’s not the Spirit. Muslims feel the Spirit. Hindus feel the
Spirit. Jews feel the Spirit. Catholics feel the Spirit. The Spirit will come
and go in their lives. What we have that they don’t have is the gift of the
Holy Ghost, and that’s the chance to have the Spirit with you always.
Here is where it gets confusing. Brad, being
true to Mormonism, seeks to separate the Spirit and the Holy Ghost. The Greek word
‘pneuma’ can be translated either as spirit or ghost, hence older versions of
the Bible have the ‘Holy Ghost’ and newer versions speak of the ‘Holy Spirit’.
But they both speak of one and the same person, the third person of the Holy Trinity.
They are not separate entities.
In suggesting that non-LDS can feel the Spirit,
but only Mormons can receive the Holy Ghost, Brad once again seeks to impress
upon the impressionable youth, that what the LDS church offers is far superior to
what is on offer on the outside. But he is wrong. What true Biblical Christianity
has is far greater. The Holy Spirit is for those who truly believe, and He gives
assurance to all those who truly belong to Jesus.
And it is God who establishes us with you in Christ, and has
anointed us, and who has also put his seal on us
and given us his Spirit in our hearts as a guarantee. (2
Corinthians 2:21-22)
I Got a Feeling
Brad went on to say to liken the Holy Spirit
to an inflated balloon. He said a balloon can either let out the air within it
or have a knot tied in the end of it to keep the air in. He said that baptism
in the LDS church is like having a knot tied. Baptism means that you now have
the gift of the Holy Ghost sealed within you and it cannot escape.
He then sought to address what he believed would
be the come back to his analogy’ ‘but Brad, I have never felt the spirit’.
He said:
“I’ve
never felt the spirit.”? No, of course you felt the Spirit. Steven Covey used
to tell students at BYU when they’d say, “I’ve never felt the Spirit”, he’d
say, “You’re like a fish – you’re swimming around in the water, and you’re
going, ‘Water? What water? I don’t see any water.'” When does the fish notice
the water? When he’s out of the water. And then he goes, “Whoa, I was in the
water all the time”.
Sometimes
that’s what has to happen with young Latter-day Saints; they have to do
something stupid. Distance themselves from the spirit. And then they say,
“I was feeling it all the time. I just didn’t recognize it”.
Notice here that Brad implants in their minds
that to leave the Mormon church is to distance themselves from the spirit. The
spirit is in the ‘Mormon’ water, and just as a fish cannot survive outside of
the water, so these young Mormons cannot survive if they leave the LDS faith.
But many have left the Mormon water and have
not only survived, but they have also flourished. They have found living water,
water that wells up into eternal life (John 4:13-15). They have a testimony of
the Spirit of truth at work in their life outside of the Mormon bubble. And
they have found that the Spirit has given them comfort, joy, peace an
assurance. To listen to such a testimony, click here.
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