An Unexpected Surprise (or rather, Disappointment)

I had my first talk with Mormon missionaries the other day. I'm actually surprised that it has taken so long to actually bump into them because they are, as my grandpa used to say, thicker than hair on a dog's back. It seems like hardly a day goes by that I do not see Mormon missionaries spreading the gospel of Joseph Smith (and here).

The Mormons I talked with said they have 29 Mormon churches in Trujillo with over 100 missionaries here. One of my friends here said he was at the airport the other day where a group of Mormons were saying goodbye to 7 missionaries who had completed their 2 year stint while at the same time receiving 20 more newbies from the next plane.

Needless to say, this is of great concern for us. The Roman church here has given the folks of Peru a notion of who Jesus is, and most people here have great respect for Him. But most folks having only vague notions are very ignorant of who Jesus is, who He claimed to be, and what He has done. Thus, the Mormons are able to capitalize on this ignorance. As one of the Mormon missionaries told me, "Everyone here has heard of Jesus, but most folks do not know much about him, so we can spend hours talking to folks about him."

Of course, the Jesus of Mormonism is not the Jesus of historic Christianity. According to Mormonism, Jesus is the brother of Lucifer (Satan). Mormons believe that good Mormons one day will become gods themselves over their very own planets.) Joseph Smith and his family were superstitious gold-diggers who were involved in the occult. In fact, Joseph Smith "translated" the Book of Mormon by putting his head into his hat with "seeing stones" similar to if not exactly the same stones he used to see hidden treasures buried in the earth (the trade he and his family had by which they milked gullible people of their money).

Quick facts about Mormonism:
•Over 11 million members (most of which are nice neighbor-types who vote Republican).
•Over 60,000 full-time missionaries—more than any other single missionary-sending organization in the world.
•More than 310,000 converts annually.
•As many as eighty percent of converts come from Protestant backgrounds. (In Mormon circles, the saying is, “We baptize a Baptist church every week.”)
•Within fifteen years, the numbers of missionaries and converts will roughly double.
•Within eighty years, with adherents exceeding 267 million, Mormonism could become the first world-religion to arise since Islam.

To learn more, check out these books:
The New Mormon Challenge
One Nation Under Gods
The Kingdom of the Cults

And check out these websites:
Institute for Religious Research
Utah Lighthouse Ministry
The Christian Apologetics & Research Ministry
Mormonism Research Ministry

One of the things I am very interested in is developing a course on Mormonism for our seminary here. Stay tuned....