Three Wise LDS Missionaries
Three Latter Day Saint missionary elders appeared at my door, a while back. They had visited a few weeks earlier, and my wife told them that her husband was the religious one in the family, and that he would be back by Christmas.
I opened with, “So what is your message for me, today?” They replied with, “Well, your wife told us you were religious, so we wanted to come by and encourage you to come to our church.” I replied, “Ok, and what would the message be there?” They were stumped. Having mercy on them, I said, “Most people who actually have the true message call it “the Gospel.’” The leader of the group said, “Well, ok, tell us your Gospel, then.”
Dumbfounded by their readiness to listen to me preach, I gathered myself and began. They listened, asked a few questions, told me their position when I asked them, and two hours and ten minutes later, I prayed for them and invited them back any time they might like to return.
What was my secret to keeping them engaged? One of them had a KJV Bible, so I kept asking him to read certain passages of Scripture (he clearly did not speak Olde English in his everyday life!). No doubt it was the Holy Spirit, who directed these three wise men (my affectionate nickname for them that they seemed to like), to come to my door. It was the Spirit and the Word that kept them there with rapt attention.
Here were some things I observed from my encounter. First, I loved them, and welcomed them. This may seem trite, but they are accustomed to people rejecting them or hurling abuse at them. I think it shocked them that I was happy to see them.
Second, I let them go first. I opened with openness. I wanted to know what their message to me was going to be. Because they really did not have a message to preach to me, I prompted them with questions.
For instance, when the main speaker kept using the word “feel” I pressed him on the fact that truth is not a feeling. As with all theological sifting, most arguments lead us to one’s belief about the Bible. The main speaker eventually confessed that he really did not believe the Bible was the Word of God. That was very important for me to know.
Third, with a confession like that I never hesitate in reproving them, saying, “Your really not believing the Scriptures is why God sent you to someone who does.” Or, when the number two guy said that he believed that we all have to choose Jesus to be our Savior, I corrected with, “Oh, that is called ‘the Arminian heresy’. Who taught you that?” He, of course, did not know, but then, I would say to the elder with the Bible, “Well, let us correct that false teaching with the Bible, and I would tell him to look up a few passages and ask him to read them.
Honestly, my sustaining grace, in holding them at my door for two hours and ten minutes, was simply knowing which Bible passage to have him look up and read. This means we do not need specialty courses in “Mormon Apologetics.” The only times we ventured into Mormon teaching was when I illustrated a point, by telling them the story of a couple missionaries in the past, who told me about becoming a god in the after-life and having my own planet (you might flinch at that, but they did not!). I told these three that there was someone in the Bible who promised Adam and Eve the same thing…Satan, in the vessel of the deceptive serpent (Gen 3:5).
LDS missionaries are commendably polite, so I always ask if I can pray for them, when I have exhausted them to the point of their asking permission to leave. In my prayer, I unreservedly plead for their souls and that God would deliver them from false teaching and delight them with the truth. My heart for these three particular young men had me weeping in my prayer to God for them (that does not always happen). We shook hands and parted company.
There was cultivation and seed planting in the encounter, and I do not think I have ever had three hearts so ready to receive Christ, but I emphasized to them that it was God’s choice to save them with passages like: John 1:12–13; 6:44; Romans 9:13–23; and Ephesians 1:4–5. With that emphasis, one of them asked how I knew I had the Holy Spirit indwelling me (Jn 14:17; Rom 8:9, 11; Jas 4:5). I opened the door to my apartment and called to my son, and he asked what I wanted. I closed the door, looked the missionary in the eye, and I said, “I knew my son was in there because he lives there. It is the same with the Holy Spirit. If you have someone living in your house…you know.”
In reflection, I am glad that God has given me the time and desire to know the Scriptures. It served my ministry better than anything else in this particular encounter. Please join me in praying that God would show mercy to these three young men, if that is His will (Rom 9:15–16). Pray that they may truly become wise men in Christ Jesus, our Lord.
Finally, my encouragement to you, dear reader, is to be daily in preparation for your own opportunities, where God directs the steps of others (Prv 3:5–6), to hear the Good News of our sovereign God (Rom 10:17), who has chosen to save a people for Himself (1 Pet 2:9), by redeeming them with the blood of the only begotten Son of God come into the world (Jn 3:16; 1 Pet 2:24), who came to save His people from their sins (Mt 1:21), and who has sent His Spirit, in love, to give His elect the light of truth in the preaching of the Word (Rom 5:5; 2 Cor 4:6).
David Norczyk
Spokane Valley, Washington
December 8, 2022
