I recently stumbled upon the best book. “Introducing Christianity to Mormons.” If you know me, or have followed me for any length of time, this choice of reading material probably doesn’t come as a surprise.
I picked it up after hearing the author, Eric Johnson, on the Unveiling Grace podcast run by a former LDS member who is also a former tenured BYU professor.
I wanted an easier way to compare the LDS beliefs with the Biblical truths I have come to know. What I didn’t expect was that I would come to understand what I believe at a deeper level, and uncover where my understanding is still in its infancy, even in a fragile state. I have been pleasantly surprised.
The most difficult teaching for me to understand (which I have come to learn stumps many believing Christians, not just those of us coming from a High Demand Religion, especially the Mormon religion), is the Trinity.
I just made it through the chapter in the book that addresses the Trinity head-on. I’ll definitely read it again, and probably again after that, but I feel I have a better understanding of the Trinity having read it.
Though the word “Trinity” is not in the Bible specifically, there are so many citations of Biblical scripture, scripture after scripture, that speaks to the nature of God, Jesus and the Holy Spirit within the one being that is God. The author then shares this thought.
…it must be understood that the doctrine of the Trinity will never be fully comprehended by the human mind. It’s like heaven and having a basic concept of what that state will be like. However, a full comprehension of the splendor prepared by God awaits the believer for a future day. So it is with the Trinity.
Johnson, Eric. Introducing Christianity to Mormons. Harvest House Publishers, 2022. (Page 167)
I stumbled with the question of the Trinity when I was 12. I asked my Sunday School teacher at the time who Jesus was praying to on the cross if He was God. I could tell she was uncomfortable with the question and didn’t have a sufficient answer for me so she blurted out, “we don’t have all the answers, some things just take faith.”
Even my 12-year-old brain had trouble with the “faith” answer. It felt like a copout. My need to have an answer for everything is, in part, what made Mormonism so appealing to me.
In the end, the answer is similar. Some things, even when explained, simply take faith. Eric Johnson cites many, many bible versus that support the Trinity. I am still reading and digesting them for myself, but it’s much easier for me to view the Trinity through faith with a little more understanding of what I’m placing my faith in.
I have come a long way. Where once I believed I had to have a concrete answer in order to believe, today, I am thankful I don’t understand, or even want to understand, every facet of how God thinks or does what He does. There is a little piece of mystery there that gives me Hope. That gives me something to be in awe of.
That statement is not to say my faith, my belief, is blind. I know who my heavenly father is. I have come to know Him intimately through the words He’s inspired within the Bible, through prayer and through the confirmation of the Holy Spirit.
I am thankful to have found this book at this time. I don’t think it’s an accident that I did. I would recommend this book even to those who just want to understand their Christian faith better.
I think sometimes as Christians, we become silo’d in our beliefs. Sometimes I think we get comfortable in believing what we believe.
In comparing the Christian faith to a non-Christian religion, such as Mormonism, it allows one to dig deeper into what we really believe, through the Bible, and anytime we are in the Word, seeking Him, we will find Him and I know for me, that journey brings me to a deeper faith each and every time.
And this book is particularly good at spelling the doctrine out with absolute biblical support, as well as providing a myriad of other resources on each topic which will be good for further exploration.
Please let me know if you pick up the book. I’m always up for a good discussion.
Shrinking Shay 