GLOBAL CHRISTIAN OUTREACH
Preaching the Gospel to All Creation
Mark 16:15
ARRESTED BY LOVE
God’s Greatest Gift to Man Isn’t Religion.
It’s a Saving Relationship with Jesus Christ.
By Annette Bonner
YOU HAVE THE POWER
When you’re ready to improve your life, empowerment is paramount.
Empowerment is especially important in your relationship with God. For instance, you need God-given power to understand Christ’s saving truths, to separate yourself from Mormonism and other religious cults, to receive forgiveness of all your sins, and to possess the gift of eternal life. Speaking of Christ’s loving outreach to “those in opposition,” Paul wrote, “ . . . God may grant them repentance leading to the knowledge of the truth, and they may come to their senses and escape from the snare of the devil, having been held captive by him to do his will” (2 Timothy 2:25, 26).
When God grants repentance to unbelievers, plus through the Bible and Holy Spirit escorts them to the truth, they obtain God’s power to escape the adversary.
How to obtain that power? Ask God for it. “If you then, being evil, know how to give good gifts to your children,” Jesus instructed, “how much more will your heavenly Father give the Holy Spirit to those who ask Him?” (Luke 11:13). Paul explained the process in these words: “For the Scripture says, ‘Everyone who believes in him will not be put to shame.’ For there is no distinction between Jew and Greek; for the same Lord is Lord of all, bestowing his riches on all who call on him. For ‘everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved’” (Romans 10:11–13 ESV).
With the Lord’s help, you have power to leave the Mormon church—or any other manmade religion. You have the power to avoid their meetings, to stop tithing, and to quit obeying their leaders. You can stop believing their foolish, damning doctrines and begin to believe in Jesus as revealed in the Bible. Paul said you can call upon the name of the Lord and be saved—no tithing, no temple, no Mormon “prophet.”
You don’t need religion or its leaders. All you need is a new life in Christ. And with God on your side, you have the power to receive it.
—Loren Franck
NEED HELP
LEAVING MORMONISM?
The authors of “Seven Reasons to Leave the Mormon Church” are eager to help you formally leave the LDS church and begin a new life with the Christ of the Bible. Both men are committed to biblical principles of “not [being] quarrelsome, but [remaining] kind to all, able to teach, patient when wronged, with gentleness correcting those who are in opposition, if perhaps God may grant them repentance leading to the knowledge of the truth”
(2 Timothy 2:24, 25).
Loren Franck, president and executive director of Global Christian Outreach, PO Box 5761, Playa del Rey, CA 90296-5761; loren@gco4lds.org.
J. Dawn Pratt, Global Christian Outreach vice president and research director, PO Box 5761, Playa del Rey, CA 90296-5761; dawn@gco4lds.org.
Since the beginning of time, man has debated, contemplated and even been alienated by the belief that mankind, the universe and all life that exists as we know it was created by a Supreme Being, or God. There have been innumerable theories on how life began, and even more arguments than we can count as to whether God, the Father and Creator of life, exists.
So the only place to begin to approach this topic is the beginning. We find access to information on the beginning from one of the oldest records of history on earth, the Holy Bible. The first book of the Bible, Genesis, chapters 1 and 2, documents the beginning of the creation of the earth, life and of mankind. Genesis 1:1–3 opens the door to insight into the knowledge of God with these words:
“In the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth. The earth was without form and void, and darkness was on the face of the deep. And the Spirit of God was hovering over the face of the deep. And the Spirit of God was hovering over the face of the waters. Then God said, ‘Let there be light’; and there was light, and God saw the light, that it was good; and God divided the light from the darkness. God called the light Day and the darkness He called Night. So the evening and the morning were the first day.”
We receive another glimpse from this scenario of the beginning of life and creation from John: “In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. He was in the beginning with God. All things were made through Him, and without Him nothing was made that was made. In Him was life, and the life was the light of men. And the light shines in the darkness, and the darkness did not comprehend it” (John 1:1–4).
So now we have two documented accounts of the history of God’s creation of earth and of the beginning of life and mankind from two separate men, living in very different time periods. My intention in this article is not to jump into the great debate that has raged for centuries about whether there is a God and whether He created the heavens and the earth and all that we know as life. But like the many that have gone before me, including the authors of Genesis and the Book of John, I simply choose to believe the gospel, which says God is a spirit being, and that the Godhead or Trinity—Father, Son and Holy Spirit—as a corporate unit created the heavens, the earth, the universe and mankind.
When I first began to hunger and thirst for the knowledge of God, I had numerous questions about Him. One was, “Why would a God of such power and glory want to create an inferior being, a spirit being with a soul designed to live in a corruptible house of flesh like mankind?” As I began to study the Bible, I found some very enlightening information that confirmed my belief in God and allowed me to receive salvation through Jesus Christ. The first thing I found out is that God loves me, and that I and all mankind were created for fellowship and relationship with God so we could walk in fellowship and relationship with one another and enjoy the beauty and wonder of God’s creation. This is explained in 1 John 4:7–11:
“Beloved, let us love one another, for love is of God; and everyone who loves is born of God and knows God. He who does not love does not know God, for God is love. In this the love of God was manifested toward us, that God has sent His only begotten Son into the world, that we might live through Him. In this is love, not that we loved God, but that He loved us and sent His Son to be the propitiation for our sins. Beloved, if God so loved us, we also ought to love one another.”
This sounds like the utopia of a perfect world that many people dream of, yet much of mankind remains tormented, torn, divided and unconvinced of the existence of God—a God of Love, a God that desires relationship with His creation. We may ask ourselves, “If God is a God of love, why is there so much hate and evil in the world?” The answer is that God created us for relationship, and He designed us to have the ability to choose. God chose to love us first and created us to be able to “choose” to love Him in return. After all, this makes perfect sense. With those we choose to love in intimate relationships, who wants to love someone who doesn’t return that love? That is not a healthy relationship. In Deuteronomy 30:15–19, God speaks to man and tells us we have the God-given right to choose to love Him:
“See, I have set before you today life and good, death and evil, in that I command you today to love the Lord your God, to walk in His ways, and to keep His commandments, His statutes, and His judgments, that you may live and multiply, and the Lord your God will bless you in the land which you go to possess . . . I call heaven and earth as witnesses today against you, that I have set before you life and death, blessing and cursing; therefore choose life, that both you and your descendants may live” (italics added).
It is unfortunate that the first man Adam, created in the image of God (Genesis 1:26, 27), made the wrong choice and decided to disobey God’s commands. This rebellious act of Adam caused the “fall of man,” and all of Adam’s descendants were not born in the image of God but in the image of Adam’s sinful nature. In spite of this failure on Adam’s part, God, in His infinite love and mercy for us as His creation, anticipated Adam’s failure before the foundation of the world and prepared a Savior for mankind. Jesus Christ, who is called “the last Adam” (1 Corinthians 15:45; also see verses 46–49), went to Calvary to die for the sins of mankind so we could be born again and restored to walk with God in His image and likeness.
Given this knowledge of the power of the Love of God, we come to understand the greatest miracle of creation, found in John 3:15–21, that “whoever believes in [Jesus Christ] should not perish but have eternal life. For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have everlasting life. For God did not send His Son into the world to condemn the world, but that the world through Him might be saved. He who believes in Him is not condemned; but he who does not believe is condemned already, because he has not believed in the name of the only begotten Son of God. And this is the condemnation, that the light has come into the world, and men loved darkness rather than light, because their deeds were evil. For everyone practicing evil hates the light and does not come to the light, lest his deeds should be exposed. But he who does the truth comes to the light, that his deeds may be clearly seen, that they have been done in God.”
Equipped with the power of this knowledge, we who have received Jesus as our Lord and Savior may exercise our God-given right and privilege to pray our loved ones into the Kingdom of God. When we pray according to the word of God from the Holy Bible, we are speaking God’s words, not our own, and God promises to perform his word. The passages outlined below verify this important doctrine:
Isaiah 55:11
“So shall My word be that goes forth out of My mouth: it shall not return to Me void [ineffective], but it shall accomplish that which I please and purpose, and it shall prosper in the thing for which I send it.”
This verse establishes the importance of speaking and praying the word of God.
Psalm 107:20
“He sends forth His Word and heals them and rescues them from the pit and destruction.”
God sends forth His word through us, speaking it out of our mouths over unsaved mankind in faith and prayer. When we pray the word of God for salvation over our loved ones and the “lost,” we are calling them out of darkness into to the light of God (see 1 Peter 2:9).
Acts 26:18
“To open their eyes, in order to turn them from darkness to light, and from the power of Satan to God, that they may receive forgiveness of sins and an inheritance among those who are sanctified by faith in Me.”
This extraordinary verse summarizes what God does for those who are reconciled to Him through our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ.
Hebrews 4:12
“For the word of God is living and powerful, and sharper than any two-edged sword, piercing even to the division of soul and spirit, and of joints and marrow, and is a discerner of the thoughts and intents of the heart.”
When we move in the power of prayer and faith in the word of God, we unleash an unstoppable force, “the living word of God,” which pierces through our being, revealing the thoughts and intentions of our heart.
Acts 4:27–31
“For truly against Your holy Servant Jesus, whom You anointed, both Herod and Pontius Pilate, with the Gentiles and the people of Israel, were gathered together to do whatever Your hand and Your purpose determined before to be done. Now, Lord, look on their threats, and grant to Your servants that with all boldness they may speak Your word, by stretching out Your hand to heal, and that signs and wonders may be done through the name of Your holy Servant Jesus. And when they had prayed, the place where they were assembled together was shaken; and they were all filled with the Holy Spirit, and they spoke the word of God with boldness . . . ”
We find a perfect example of the power of prayer in the book of Acts. The early church met great opposition to the spreading of the gospel of Jesus Christ, even resulting in death and imprisonment for those who stood on the word of God and prayed for boldness.
Acts 8:1–3
“Now Saul [later known as Paul; see Acts 13:9] was consenting to [Stephen’s] death. At that time a great persecution arose against the church which was at Jerusalem; and they were all scattered throughout the regions of Judea and Samaria except the apostles. And devout men carried Stephen to his burial, and made great lamentation over him. As for Saul, he made havoc of the church, entering every house and dragging off men and women, committing them to prison.”
Through the power of a praying church, the greatest persecutor of the early Church, Saul of Tarsus, was supernaturally arrested by the love of God in Christ Jesus. So how does a religious zealot like Saul, someone so indoctrinated in his religious beliefs that he was willing to have others put to death for their faith, become one of the greatest ministers of the gospel of Jesus Christ to walk the earth?
To answer this question effectively, we must first move beyond our human intellect to understand that if God is indeed the Creator of all things, then God should certainly be able to do anything, even use a supernatural circumstance to get Saul’s attention. On the road to Damascus, Saul had a close encounter of a different kind with Jesus Christ. The light and glory of God shone so bright that he was blind for three days. Acts 9:1–7 provides the vivid details.
Acts 9:1–7
“Then Saul, still breathing threats and murder against the disciples of the Lord, went to the high priest and asked letters from him to the synagogues of Damascus, so that if he found any who were of the Way, whether men or women, he might bring them bound to Jerusalem. As he journeyed he came near Damascus, and suddenly a light shone around him from heaven. Then he fell to the ground, and heard a voice saying to him, ‘Saul, Saul, why are you persecuting Me?’ And he said, ‘Who are You, Lord?’ Then the Lord said, ‘I am Jesus, whom you are persecuting. It is hard for you to kick against the goads.’ So he, trembling and astonished, said, ‘Lord, what do You want me to do?’ Then the Lord said to him, ‘Arise and go into the city, and you will be told what you must do.’ And the men who journeyed with him stood speechless, hearing a voice but seeing no one. Then Saul arose from the ground, and when his eyes were opened he saw no one. But they led him by the hand and brought him into Damascus. And he was three days without sight, and neither ate nor drank” (italics added).
Acts 9:17
“And Ananias went his way and entered the house; and laying his hands on him he said, ‘Brother Saul, the Lord Jesus, who appeared to you on the road as you came, has sent me that you may receive your sight and be filled with the Holy Spirit.’ Immediately there fell from his eyes something like scales, and he received his sight at once; and he arose and was baptized.”
Because of the saints’ prayers, Saul was arrested by the love of Christ. In fact, the Bible says Saul immediately began to walk in the light of the glorious gospel of Jesus Christ:
“Immediately he preached the Christ in the synagogues, that He is the Son of God. Then all who heard were amazed, and said, ‘Is this not he who destroyed those who called on this name in Jerusalem, and has come here for that purpose, so that he might bring them bound to the chief priests?’ But Saul increased all the more in strength, and confounded the Jews who dwelt in Damascus, proving that this Jesus is the Christ” (Acts 9:20–22).
Through our prayers and confession of the word of God over our nation, our families, those entangled in false religious doctrines, and those who don’t believe in God at all, we can activate the power of God to arrest them with His love, reconciling them to Him through the Son of His Love, Jesus Christ. We must never give up the fight to stand in prayer for the deliverance and salvation of mankind, for by this action, we become instruments that walk in the image of His love and power to change our world into the paradise God created it to be.
Conclusion
In closing, I would like to leave you with this admonition from the word of God:
“Beware lest anyone cheat you through philosophy and empty deceit, according to the tradition of men, according to the basic principles of the world, and not according to Christ. For in Him dwells all the fullness of the Godhead bodily and you are complete in Him, who is the Head of all principality and power” (Colossians 2: 8–10).
Bible passages in this article are from the New King James Version.
©2012 Global Christian Outreach, Inc. All Rights Reserved
WANT TO BE A
GOOD SAMARITAN?
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Mormonism relies heavily on marketing and public relations instead of biblical truth. The Los Angeles billboard above targets African-American families as needing help to stay together. Through its former priesthood ban, the Mormon church discriminated against blacks of African descent for more than 100 years.
“For it was the Father's good pleasure for all the fullness to dwell in Him, and through Him to reconcile all things to Himself, having made peace through the blood of His cross.”
Colossians 1:19, 20
THE SAVIOR SAYS . . .
“Give, and it will be given to you. They will pour into your lap a good measure—pressed down, shaken together, and running over. For by your standard of measure it will be measured to you in return”
(Luke 6:38).
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WANT TO KNOW?
1. What are the seven best biblical reasons to leave Mormonism? Click here to find out.
2. Does God require Christians to tithe? Read what the Bible says.
3. Did Mormon “prophet” Brigham Young teach false doctrine? Find out here.
4. Will Mormons be saviors on Mt. Zion? Discover why the Bible says no.
5. Are Mormons Christians? GCO reveals the truth here.
