So, I know someone whom I will call Brenna. She was raised in the Roman Catholic Church from birth but in her own words, "I just never really connected with it." Following high school, like many young men and women, Brenna strayed from the Church and gave very little thought to the idea of religion and faith. Fast forward a few more years and Brenna meets a great guy (Bob sounds good) and wants to settle down and marry Bob. Bob was raised in the Mormon church, but he too strayed from his faith in his young adult years. The two get married and both agree it would be a good idea to reconnect to the Church. One Sunday, the take a visit to the local Mormon parish and Brenna very much enjoys the experience.
"There is a sense of community here that I never experienced in 20 years at the Roman Catholic Church... but at the same time, I have always been told that the Mormons are 'off' or that what they believe is 'heresy.' All I know is that I have found a family here."
So what do you think? I can already predict some responses: "The sense of family Brenna is experiencing means very little if she affirms the false doctrine that goes with it, etc." Is there any way that the Holy Spirit would use this Mormon congregation to speak truth and love to Brenna? Could the Holy Spirit have even lead Brenna there? It is quite obvious that Brenna has a renewed desire to know God and build a Godly home (especially now that they have a baby). Is God rejoicing over the fact that Brenna wants to refocus her life towards God, even if it means her faith becoming 'muddied' in what many Christians would call 'false doctrine,' OR, is God saddened by the direction Brenna's faith seems to be headed?
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I could be wrong, but it seems to me that God uses lots of unlikely things to lead us closer to him. Someone wise once told me, "He will speak any language to win our hearts." My first church was a Baptist church, then a Nazarene church, and then an Open Bible church - do I agree with every single tenet of each? No, but each fed me while I was there, and each brought me closer to the Lord and increased my knowledge and thirst for him.
ReplyDeleteI say this with a caveat - I think that as long as the church sect affirms Jesus as Lord, something good can almost always be gleaned there. I am not advocating for universalism, but Mormons do hold Jesus as the Son of God and try to follow him, and that means that they are part of the Church as much as any of us. They may not have everything correct (who among us does?), but it doesn't mean one cannot experience God and God's goodness and truth in a Mormon church. The Holy Spirit is bigger than dogma and doctrine, and leads our hearts. He may be using the Mormon church to rekindle something in Brenna, and then may lead her somewhere else later to build upon that with a solid foundation of Scriptural truth. Who are we to know what God is up to? It sounds like he is up to *something* in your friend, though. :)
Thank you for your post Cate. You have articulated many of my own thoughts. I agree that a 'wishy washy universalism' is not any sort of solution, but at the same time we need to be slow (and perhaps stop) when saying where the Holy Spirit can and cannot work and move in a person's life. Is our Lord not so great that He can use portions of truth taught and preached even in what would be considered heresy and/or unorthodox?
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