Coming into Christianity, there is so much to learn! You have to learn about salvation and Jesus, of course. That is number one! But there is so much that goes along with all of that. Even if you took a crash course in Christianity I am pretty sure you would still have a long way to go to understanding the depth of the religion. Take the Holy Trinity for example. Is there really any Christian that truly understands that? Well maybe, but I have yet to understand the concept enough that I could explain it to someone else.
For the time will come when people will not put up with sound doctrine. Instead, to suit their own desires, they will gather around them a great number of teachers to say what their itching ears want to hear. 2 Timothy 4:3
It is important to understand why you are Christian though, and be able to explain what it means and answer hard questions about your faith. There are going to be times when you will be questioned or when you will be faced with deceptive information and you will need to be able to weed the truth from lies. This happened to me a few times as I had a string of Mormons and Jehovah’s Witness come to my house. 
My grandmother on my mom’s side of the family is Mormon. Often I could go with her to church when I was a child, and so I do know some about Mormonism. I can’t say I learned a lot about Mormon’s or what they believe though. I knew a few things such as: they can’t drink caffeine and they believe in the prophet Joseph Smith. I even went to Utah with my grandma and saw the Mormon Temple. I was interested in it enough that I had seriously thought about getting baptized into the faith when I was 13. For some reason I changed my mind though, and left Mormonism far behind after that.
When I started going to a Christian church, I had a lot of questions about other religions. Mormonism in particular because of its ties to my family. When one of the pastors at my church called it a cult, I was kind of shocked. OK, more than kind of; I was reeling in my seat. I had never thought Mormon was anything more than another religion, like Christianity. I may have even associated it as being Christian at one time in my life. My pastor made sure to let me know that Mormons and Jehovah’s Witnesses were not Christian at all.
That set me on a quest to learn more about these cult-religions. I always thought the only cult like that was Scientology. Although I didn’t know very much about that one either. A quick internet search led me to a lot of information about Mormons that I really didn’t know what to do with. It was just so far out there. And it led me to feel judgmental against them – the word crazy just kept popping up in my mind. But I knew that was wrong and not how god wants me to think. So I had to abandon the search on Mormons and Jehovah’s Witnesses for a time and leave that to God.
That is until they started coming to my door. Over a period of several months I had at least a half a dozen visits from different Mormon’s and Jehovah’s Witnesses. It was like we had a target on our house or something, because they just kept coming. In the past I would have not so politely told them to get lost because I wasn’t interested. Now I was concerned about being rude, because I wanted to learn to love everyone, as Jesus commands us to. I even invited some of them back, in hopes that maybe I could help them. Not that I knew what I was doing talking to people who could potentially turn a new Christian upside down in their faith.
These visits have tested my faith though. After one visit from a couple of Jehovah’s Witnesses I did another internet search on what they believed. They would always come to the door with a book that looked very much like a Bible. It was even called a Bible and they would read out of it. Passages that were from the same Bible I read myself. They came with a message that the church has been turned away from some of its original teachings and they wanted to restore that.
Naturally I was curious about what they had to say so when I searched the internet and found out that Jehovah’s Witness do not believe that Jesus is God I was completely thrown off. I had been praying to and worshiping Jesus on a regular basis. As a matter of fact my time in the presence of Jesus was some of the most life changing moments I had experienced. I knew I was in the very presence of God. But this new information made me question that. Was I wrong? Was Jesus not even really God??
I searched the internet for scripture that would show me that the Bible does in fact reveal that Jesus is God. And thankfully that was a very easy search! Thomas answered and said to Him, “My Lord and my God!” John 20:28. That was my favorite verse that I found. Good old Doubting Thomas who couldn’t believe Jesus had been resurrected until he saw the wounds in His hands and side for himself. He touched them and proclaimed what all the other disciples already knew – that Jesus is God.
Jesus did not come out and proclaim “I am God.” He did come very close when He said “I and the Father are one.” John 10:30 The Pharisees were ready to stone him for that statement because they considered it blasphemy. “For a good work we do not stone You, but for blasphemy; and because You, being a man, make Yourself out to be God.” John 10:33 Jesus’ statement was huge, because to claim to be one with The Father was to claim to be God Himself. So if Jesus is not God, it would indeed be a blasphemous statement for Him to proclaim.
But when you tango with the beliefs of Jehovah’s Witnesses, you can get caught in a web of their deception. They take this same verse and twist it just so. It can leave you confused and doubting if you are not careful.
“This strong bond of unity, however, does not make God and his Son, Jesus, indistinguishable from each other. They are two individuals. Each one has his own distinct personality. Jesus has his own feelings, thoughts, experiences, and free will.” JW.org
Our faith can be shaken, tested and tossed about in a sea of uncertainty. Does that mean what we believe isn’t true? No. We need to test our faith and answer the big questions that come up about it. We need to be able to face these questions and take them to the Bible and answer them with the Word of God. We need to be careful at the words of man and being led astray by their teachings. It is and important and necessary part of our growth in our walk of Christianity. How many Christians have been tested and fell short, letting themselves be shaken to the core and then completely lost their way? It can be easier to fall than you think.
The Mormons also do not believe that Jesus is God. They believe He is the son of God, but like the Jehovah’s Witnesses, they believe He is a separate person than God Himself. He had powers of a God while on earth, but was not God.
“We believe Jesus is the Son of God the Father and as such inherited powers of godhood and divinity from His Father, including immortality, the capacity to live forever. While He walked the dusty road of Palestine as a man, He possessed the powers of a God and ministered as one having authority, including power over the elements and even power over life and death.” mormonnewsroom.org
Dear friends, do not believe every spirit, but test the spirits to see whether they are from God, because many false prophets have gone out into the world. 1 John 4:1
There were so many Jehovah’s Witnesses and Mormons coming by that we started to wonder if it was a spiritual attack against us. Finally my husband answered the door and refused them and turned them away. We didn’t see any for months and I quite enjoyed the break from it. I felt weakened by all the questioning I had to do for my own faith. Faith that was still so new. I began to study the Bible more often and memorize scripture. I have hidden your word in my heart that I might not sin against you. Psalm 119:11 I became increasingly familiar with His word and grew more in my understanding of who God is and what His truths are.
I did this because I had a desire to do so. The more I studied and memorized, the more I grew a hunger and thirst for it. I longed for the truth and was able to bring to mind Bible verses easily for many circumstances in my life and for others. It was wonderful. Then just a week ago the doorbell rang. I thought it was another door to door salesman wanting to sign us up for a new roof or paint our house. When I opened the door I was surprised to see two nicely dressed women holding black books. Mormons. Oh Lord, I prayed, please help me! I did not want to go through the doubt and uncertainty as I did before. I did not know what to say to these people and their unyielding attempts to bring me into their faith.
God was faithful to me, and my study of His word gave me just the strength I needed. I was able to test God’s will and back it up with the scripture I had been learning. I have no idea if I said anything to these young women that made a difference to them in any way. I have no idea if God used me in this circumstance to touch them. All I do know is I am glad that I did have my faith tested, and that I challenged me to grow and learn.
I do not want to judge others, or say I know better than anyone else. I do know a few simple truths though. Jesus is god, the Bible is the inerrant Word of God, and if you can’t back something up with scripture, then it is not the Truth. I am thankful for these small bits of wisdom and I pray to gain more as I continue to study and learn. In this society truth is not absolute – that it changes for every person – I thank God that He is my rock that I can stand on in a sea of discord. I have built my house on sand and watched it sink time and time again. And I sat in misery as my world crumbled before my eyes each time. Now I can stand firm with faith and hope to know that God’s word never returns void and that I can rest safely in the shelter of the Most High.
“Be still and know that I am God.” Psalm 46:10
