Bringing Scripture to Life

Yesterday my family and I were spending time at a park in San Diego, when two mormon missionaries walked by. I ended up getting into a conversation with them. Whenever I am dialoguing with cults, I always keep the focus on Jesus. In my experience, I have found that they will usually take us on endless rabbit trails about everything except for Jesus if we let them. Therefore, I am always very conscious about keeping the subject on the Person of Jesus Christ. As we were dialoguing together I asked them who they believe Jesus was. They explained to me that we are all spiritual children of God, and that Jesus and Satan are spiritual brothers.  After listening to them explain to me their views on Jesus' relationship to Satan, as well as their beliefs about our pre-existence  in heaven,  I took some time to explain to them how we have two very different views about who Jesus is, and that we both cannot be correct. They agreed. I asked them if they have read the Bible? Th...

  One of the doctrines that Mormonism teaches is known as pre-existence. Pre-existence is the belief that humanity started out in heaven as spirit-beings prior to being born in the flesh, chose God’s plan of salvation, which according to their doctrine, meant taking the opportunity to live righteously on earth, in order to “become like” God the Father. In LDS’ Journal of Discourse, founder Joseph Smith claims, “We were first begotten as spirit babies in heaven and then born naturally on earth” (Journal of Discourse, Vol. 4, p. 218). In a pamphlet handed out at the temple on BYU Campus, this belief is further defined by saying, “ Life for you did not begin here on earth. You lived before you were born (how does one live before they are born?), you will live on in the spirit world after your mortal life is ended... We all once lived in the presence of God the eternal father... With this divine parentage, your destiny, through righteous living, is to become like your Fath...

1 st John 4:2-3 GUIDE for Testing the spirits Pastor Jason Stewart I.       Introduction: This morning as we continue on in our look from 1 st John 4, we are going to see the importance that the Holy Spirit plays in guiding us into the truth of God’s Word, and how He will always point us toward Jesus Christ. II.      Revelation/Application: Testing the Spirit Last week we looked at (v.1) and how God has given us the “Command” to test the spirits, and this week we are going to see that God has given us a Supernatural Guide to help us when testing the spirits, Himself.   The first key area we will be looking at is our “Guide” for Testing the Spirits. This is Point One of this mornings’ message: We test the spirits with the Holy Spirit. 1. In order to test the spirits, we have to have the right Guide to lead us in the testing. We find this truth being presented to us in (vv.2-3). The Bible says in 1 John 4:2, “By ...

1 John 4:1 COMMAND to Test the spirits Pastor Jason Stewart I.       Introduction: Please read Wreckers  for an illustration to help drive home the importance of this message. II.       Revelation/Application: Testing the Spirit a.     The Command for Testing (4:1) 1. Not every spirit is of God. Just as God has His representatives so too does Satan have people under his influence also. Ever since Satan successfully tempted Eve in the Garden of Eden, he has been distorting God’s Word in order to deceive people and separate them from God. 2. In fact Scripture tells us that he is the master mind behind all false teachers and errant doctrine (2 Corinthians 11:13-15). That is why John says, “Do not believe every spirit” (4:1a). In essence, John is telling us not to believe everything we hear! As Christians we are called to be like the Berean’s in order to determine what is true and what is error (Ac...