Bridge of Reason

Tony Brown spoke at our 2023 Convention on the Impossible Gospel of Mormonism. Our 2024 Convention is already planned and booked for September. Why not join us and enjoy a weekend of teaching, equipping, and fellowship with people who have been there and understand. Find out more here . Meanwhile, I hope you find this teaching a blessing.

  Isaiah 53 in the Great Isaiah Scroll It is in Acts 8:26-38 we find the story of Philip and the Ethiopian official from the court of Candace. The Spirit directs Philip to ‘go down from Jerusalem to Gaza’ and talk to the man. Here was the last watering hole before the desert on the route from Jerusalem to Egypt, from where he would go on to the ancient Nubian kingdom south of Aswan on the Nile. The man was probably a God-fearer – ‘he had come to Jerusalem to worship.’ He was ‘seated in his chariot, and he was reading the prophet Isaiah.’ This was unusual for an outsider, a Gentile. He had, nevertheless, been to Jerusalem and would have heard of the crucifixion, of the events at Pentecost, and might have witnessed the beginning of the Christian Diaspora. What would he have seen and heard that would draw him to Isaiah 53? Philip is instructed to join the man’s chariot, which he did and found himself invited to come up and sit with him. What if it had been Charles Russell in that...

  It is often asked, how can anyone fall for this or that cult? Behind the question is an assumption; these people are gullible. But they are neither gullible, nor are they dumb. In fact, most people who join cults are intelligent and capable. That much is clear from the fact they so often come along asking important questio ns about life. From our vantage point we might compare a cult’s teaching with our own experience and understanding, but that is not where the cult member is standing. Imagine a scale of 1-10: 1------2------3------4------5------6------7------8------9------10 Number ten represents the complete cult experience.  Number one represents what most regard as the received orthodoxy of the faith, where we stand when we agree on the fundamentals.  It is from this viewpoint that you survey the cult scene and judge others ‘dumb for falling for this stuff.’ The ‘others’ you are looking at stand, shall we say, at point seven on this scale. I t is well to remember th...

The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints have recently released several short videos which all begin with the question ‘How Can It Not Be True?’ These videos cover the subjects: Who is God?; Evidence of God’s Existence; The Miracle of Humankind; Jesus Christ as the Son of God; Agency and the Promises of Obedience; The Witness of the Spirit; Joseph Smith; and The Book of Mormon. Over the next few weeks, I will review these videos and consider if what they teach can or cannot be true. These videos are, as always, beautifully produced, and very easy on the eye. The Mormons, realising that many people will not watch or listen to a video like this beyond a couple of minutes, have made them short and to the point. Their hope, perhaps, is that these videos will arouse enough interest that the watcher visit their website or one of their churches. Let’s begin with: How Can It Not Be True – Who is God? The first claim made by the video is that God is always available for us. We would ...

  ‘The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints does not see itself as one Christian denomination among many, but rather as God’s latter-day restoration of the fulness of Christian faith and practice. Thus from its earliest days LDS Christians sought to distinguish themselves from Christians of other traditions.’ (Encyclopaedia of Mormonism 1:270) When LDS leader Brad Wilcox told the youth, and the assembled adults, that O is for Only True Church, I wonder what they thought? Older Mormons perhaps felt like giving Brad a hearty ‘amen’, after all he was declaring the historical Mormon position that the LDS church is the only true church. What Brad said clearly lines up with the Mormon past, with Mormon doctrine and with the Mormon scriptures, but it doesn’t quite square with what I constantly hear from Missionaries. Missionaries have often told me that I am a Christian, but I am missing some pieces of information, namely, the doctrines and gospel ordinances found only in the...

The Mormon missionary manual, Preach my Gospel, teaches: "The Church of Jesus Christ is built on the foundation of apostles and prophets (see Ephesians 2:19–20; 4:11–14). These leaders have divine priesthood authority. Through revelation they direct the affairs of the Church. They maintain doctrinal purity, authorize the administration of ordinances, and call and confer the priesthood authority upon others" This is about the classic Mormon argument that, either there is a continuity of authority from the days of the apostles, in which case the Catholic Church has prior claim to supreme authority, or there has been a break in continuity from those days, an apostasy, therefore the Mormon claim to be a restoration stands true. When a Mormon male is ordained an elder in the church he is given a document known as a 'line of authority,' showing an unbroken line of ordinations, from the one who laid hands on him back to Joseph Smith, and then to Peter, James, and John who, ...

The Mormon Church is not changing it's name again, it is making a 'correction.' In an official statement in August new president, Russell M Nelson, said: “ The Lord has impressed upon my mind the importance of the name He has revealed for His Church, even The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. We have work before us to bring Technorati Tags: ourselves in harmony with His will. In recent weeks, various Church leaders and departments have initiated the necessary steps to do so. Additional information about this important matter will be made available in the coming months.” Call me cynical but I have the suspicion this is not so much an impression from the Lord as a long-standing issue for the man. I imagine all those leadership meetings over the years where he tried to raise the subject - 'Oh, Russell's on his hobby horse again. Mormon is popular Russell, listen to the tech guys. ' I imagine the rolled eyes when this was announced, 'He's only...

ANN: Before I was taught by the Mormons in my teens, I only knew what I had learned at Sunday School as a small child and in R.E. lessons in school. Like many people, I thought that a Christian was someone who tried hard to do good things, read the Bible, and prayed to God. I learned from my Mormon friends that Jesus had paid for the fall of Adam, so that we are all born sinless and are held accountable only for the sins we ourselves commit. Because Jesus died for my sins, I could work to be acceptable to God and hope one day to be judged worthy of heaven. It certainly sounded right, and I looked no further. I was introduced to the Mormon church via a card through the door offering a free copy of the Book of Mormon. I had been asking a lot of questions about God and the purpose of life, so I sent it off. The book was delivered by two Mormon missionaries when I was out, so my mother made an appointment for them to come back and speak to me. Through their teaching, and visits to the chur...

The February 2017 Enisgn magazine of the Mormon Church just dropped through my letterbox. Leafing through it, my eye was immediately drawn to the visiting teaching message on page 7, Christ’s Atonement is Evidence of God’s Love. The atoning work of Jesus is a fundamental of the Christian faith. What a movement has to say on this issue tells a lot about where it stands in relation to the clear message of the Bible on first principles.The piece begins: “Understanding that our Heavenly Father gave His Only Begotten Son that we might have immortality and the potential for eternal life helps us feel God’s infinite and incomprehensible love for us.” Mormon thinking is shot through with references to feelings of course. Understanding in this instance, “helps us feel God’s infinite and incomprehensible love for us.” The Bible, however, tells us that our understanding of gospel principles helps us know ! John writes: “I write these things to you who believe in the name of the Son of God s...

The September 2016 edition of the Mormon Ensign magazine, in its Conference Notebook, carried a note by Elder Dale G. Redlund about the Atomenment of Jesus Christ. It is an exerpt from his April conference address, reported in full in the May 2016 Ensign, p42 . Here is the exerpt: I can emphatically state that because of the Atonement of Jesus Christ, ultimately, in the eternal scheme of things, there will be no unfairness. “All that is unfair about life can be made right.” [ Preach my Gospel , 52] Our present circumstances may not change, but through God’s compassion, kindness, and love, we will all receive more than we deserve, more than we can ever earn, and more than we can ever hope for. We are promised that “God shall wipe away all tears from [our] eyes; and there shall be no more death, neither sorrow, nor crying, neither shall there be any more pain: for the former things are passed away.” [Revelation 21:4] There is much to say about this short piece but I want to draw you...

The Mormon God has evolved with the thinking of Mormon leaders. The Book of Mormon, the earliest Mormon text, insists there is one God. In a discussion between two characters named Amulek and Zeezrom we read: ‘And Zeezrom said unto him: Thou sayest there is a true and living God? And Amulek said: Yea, there is a true and living God. And Zeezrom said: Is there more than one God? And he answered, No.’ (Alma 11:26-29) In conversations with Mormons this is a helpful text. The question is at the bottom of page 235 while the answer is over the page. Asking a Mormon what answer he or she thinks Amulek gives before turning the page can make for an interesting exchange. On a time-line this teaching comes in March 1830, the date of the Book of Mormon’s publication. This ‘one God’ sounds singularly Trinitarian in nature, although is probably modalist in Smith’s mind: ‘..And the honor be to the Father, and to the Son, and to the Holy Ghost, which is one God. Amen.’ (Testimony of the...

From time to time Mormons come up with what they regard as ‘substantive’ evidence for the Book of Mormon. When ministries inevitably challenge and refute that evidence, Mormons insist that someone can only know the Book of Mormon is true by sincere prayer, citing Moroni’s promise from the end of the book: ‘And when ye shall receive these things, I would exhort you that ye would ask God the Eternal Father, in the name of Christ, if these things are not true; and if ye shall ask with a sincere heart, with real intent, having faith in Christ, he will manifest the truth of it unto you, by the power of the Holy Ghost.’ (Moroni 10:4) Of course, if you have prayed and received no such confirming answer, the sincerity of your heart, the reality of your intent, and the faith you express in Christ are all called into question. Very quickly you move from their providing evidence to their doubting your integrity… read more →