Posted in Curriculum
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We've been studying early church history and the Creeds with Rebecca, my 11-year-old, this fall, using the Omnibus II program from Veritas Press. One of the exercises it recommended doing when talking about heresies in the early church was to talk to some Mormons. I didn't know any, so I figured that was that.
Today two knocked on my door. I think they were rather taken aback by how happy I was to see them! The poor dears, they were in their early 20s and I don't think they knew what hit them. I invited them in and got them all comfortable and dragged down all our textbooks and began asking them questions.
I usually talk with members of different cults when they stop by our door because I figure if someone wants to talk about Jesus, who am I to send them away? Especially if I can direct the conversation.
So we talked about who Jesus is, the nature of faith vs. works, and the purpose of life. All very interesting. And I made Rebecca answer a few questions, like how we know that we get to heaven by faith and not works (Ephesians 2:8, 9) and what that means. I told the Mormon guys the concept of Jesus "imputing" his righteousness on us, so that when God looks at us, He doesn't just see us as people without sin--kind of neutral in the goodness department--but as people with all of Jesus' righteousness. We are given His good works credited towards us! That's pretty cool. I don't think they ever knew that.
Anyway, we weren't getting very far going back and forth on theology, and I wanted to let Rebecca hear what they actually believe, so I let them talk for a while. They said how they believe that Jesus appointed twelve people to lead his church, but these twelve were killed so the true church died out. Very interesting. I said, "what about Paul?". They didn't know what to say. He wasn't among the 12, was he? They said that only those 12 had the authority to baptize, but I brought up those verses when Paul criticizes the churches for saying "I was baptized by Paul" or "I was baptized by Apollos".
And when they left, Rebecca and I reviewed what we learned about the endurance of the message from the early church onwards. Great lesson to bring home the message of Eusebius! We really slogged through that work, but now we can see how it actually still is practical.
So I would really recommend the Omnibus program by Veritas Press. It's great. And talk to a Mormon!
Oh, one other thing. Whenever I have people in to talk, I always ask to pray before they leave. I pray that God will give us all wisdom, and that He will put in our hearts a sincere, courageous desire to know the truth, whatever that truth may be. And that we will be able to hear His voice. They always seem impressed to see that I can actually pray, and then I figure that God will honour that prayer.
Take care everybody! |
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