Saints Alive Newsletter January 2005

Greetings from all of us at Saints Alive! I wanted to get a Web Newsletter out before I finished tackling the pile of work on my desk this month.

I so appreciate all of you e-mail folks. In truth, my web mail list is now larger than my normal mail list and that’s a pile of people.

This month, you will find the first installment of my new book, MY KINGDOM COME, one that I finished this last summer. It is actually a remake and major update of an older book I did some years ago with Carol Matrisciana.

I was all set to send it to my publisher when I felt the Lord prompting me to just put it out on our web site, where over 150,000 people a month could have free access to it.

However, I am going to put it out a chapter at a time. Today, you get the first section.

We have been going through computer melt down here, but thanks to some extra-ordinary, wonderful partner gifts we are up and running again, well almost...

I would ask that you pray about making a donation to this ministry if you can. We rely on donations/gifts from our partners to fund the work of Saints Alive.

We answer over a thousand emails or letters a month, mail out many hundreds of free information packets every month, counsel, minister and work the calling here with joyous hearts to be so used of the Lord, but it just takes gifts from folks like you to make it work, pay the postage, print the material, maintain the website.

Well, you get the idea. Pray about an amount that you could send in. Either mail a gift in to our address above, or go online at our web site and click on the “Give a Donation” bar on the left side of the home page to send in your gift.

If you have any questions for us or prayer needs we can pray for, or if we can help in any way, please email me direct, at ed@saintsalive.com.

Parts of this book were originally published under the title,
The God Makers II, a book I wrote with Caryl Matrisciana.

Caryl can be reached at http://www.carylmatrisciana.com. She has recently produced an excellent video on the subject of Harry Potter books and movies, titled Harry Potter, Witchcraft Repackaged: Making Evil look Innocent.

Since the original book went out of print a number of years ago, I have taken the time to update it with a number of things that have surfaced since its publication years ago.

As the Billy Graham crusade came to a close, the camera panned back from the pulpit area to show the vast arena. The altar area in front of the speaking platform was filled with people involved in surrendering their lives to the love and grace of the Lord Jesus. We sat there quietly watching it on television, each of us lost in our private thoughts, contemplating those many lives changed, by Biblical truths, families renewed by Biblical principles, marriages restored by Biblical concepts. Suddenly, our thoughts were pulled back to reality as the scene switched from the crusade to a TV spot, encouraging us to remain in our seats and watch the special program to follow.

What came next was a half-hour presentation created by the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (LDS) and timed to capture the Billy Graham audience when so many of those viewers were spiritually vulnerable. The pitch drew them into dialing an 800 number for one of several free videos. The catch was that any offered video would be delivered by two young LDS (Mormon) missionaries. The fields were white for harvesting.

The Mormon broadcast, What Is Real?, which asserted that they were a Bible believing Church centered in Jesus, was aired in 77 cities, with their 800 number scrolling along the bottom of the screen. [1] How many hurting people, hearts breaking for a relationship with the Creator God after the crusade, watched that program, called the number, and were snatched away from the arms of the waiting Christ, drawn away into a life of lies? Too many!

These impeccably produced LDS specials and the follow-up videos were designed to reach people with words and pictures that seduce troubled hearts into believing the Mormon deception. Phrases such as "we wanted more of something...we didn't know what it was...we were empty...I wanted to feel alive...I didn't get married to get divorced...God had a plan for people like us, forever...if the Lord could only help us...listen to your heart." No wonder so many people fell prey to that sweet imitation of Truth. Even the music was soothing and promised peace.

Nothing in the program so much as hinted that the message being proclaimed was anything other than a compassionate evangelical plea to begin a relationship with God. And what could be wrong with that? Nothing, unless there's more to the story than is being told, unless the words being spoken have double meanings. It's not what LDS programs say but what they don't say. Why must the Mormon Church hide behind Christian terminology? Why is it that not one of its special programs, paid advertisements, or public service campaigns ever tells people what separates Mormon theology from orthodox Christianity and let's the viewer decide for themselves? What are the Mormons afraid of? What do they have to hide?

In this modern world of state of the art television communications, it is the rare American who has not seen at least a dozen fuzzy-warm-all-over TV spots promoted by "Your Friends/the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints." For those few who have missed out, there are the same spot ads showing up all over the country on radio, in newspapers and in magazines.

The people who manage the Public Relations outreach for the Mormon Church have become masters of their trade. Their material is up there with the Pepsi Cola Super Bowl commercials. The ads they have produced are working and giving that ever-growing army of Mormon missionaries a ready list of anxious buyers.

These Mormon advertising strategies look so professional that no one would even think that he or she had been deceived. Mormon missionaries are still pedaling down the streets of America on bicycles, but today’s Mormon missionaries are no longer casual visitors to your neighborhood. They are working from computer printouts generated by these high tech media campaigns.

That professional eye of a savvy hunter was never more apparent than their tender-sweet pitch we viewed just after the Billy Graham Crusade ended. It was like watching ravening wolves silently slip in among the flock.

These LDS recruitment methods are successfully reaching into the very sanctuaries of Christianity. Even when forewarned, the unsuspecting church seems unable to cope with the new sophistication of the Mormon proselytizing techniques.

For most of its history Mormons have struggled to be separate and distinct from the "apostate" Christian church. "Come out from among them!" was their early battle cry. They were a strange, easy-to-identify group, set apart from the real world by their peculiar habits and doctrines. No longer!

Today's Mormons are now declaring that they are part of the Christian brotherhood. They are serious about joining pastors' groups and showing up for community prayer meetings and Bible studies.

In one Washington city, Mormons planned to be part of the inter-church group that walked the Stations of the Cross on Easter Sunday. A few calls placed by Ed ended that plan quickly. This is the same church that forbids its members to wear crosses as jewelry and doesn't have a single cross erected in, on, or around even one of its many thousands of church buildings.

Mormons have made inroads into secular venues as well. We heard that Mormon missionaries showed up at one Florida middle school in response to a public plea for volunteer help. They claimed that they needed a certain amount of public service to fulfill the service requirements of their mission. There was little that could be done legally to prohibit these young Mormons from doing their volunteer work, and they spent several hours three mornings a week working among the youngsters.

At the school, they were not going by their rigid usual title of Elder Smith and Elder Jones. The kids knew them as Tom and Mike. A special relationship was being created in that town between the Mormon missionaries and a school full of impressionable kids who lived in the houses Tom and Mike were visiting with the Mormon gospel. Successful? You bet it was!

What is alarming is that the Mormons were starting to look more like Christians than the Christians. Today, the Mormons have a new emphasize in their approach. Its leaders have corporately decided that the old days of separation from the orthodox Christian crowd is just not going to work over the long haul. They see that they must bring Mormonism into the new age and be all things to all people. Above all else, they must appear to be the epitome of Christianity to that segment of the population that generally considers itself Christian. Christians are the Mormon target population in their world wide missionary effort.

Christians must realize that the Mormon hope of appearing Christian is not reflected in their historic or current teachings. As we will show, the numerous changes to doctrine and practice are only cosmetic. Don't be deceived by the pretty new face.

New Strategies

To make its plan for assimilation into the Christian mainstream work, the LDS church must stop people who educate and warn the public through movies and books such as The God Makers and The God Makers II. The new approach to dealing with those who expose and oppose the false doctrines of Mormonism is to aggressively work to close the doors of Christian churches to them.

This massive effort of the Mormon Church in developing warm, interfaith friendships has been paying off. These neutralized Christians now often tell us that real Christians don't attack other faiths. They say that Mormons can only be won to Christ only by quiet, non-confrontive lifestyle evangelism. They say that Mormons will see the life of Christ in us and eventually be converted. It's a nice theory. It just isn't effective, and it just isn't true.

Even some of the groups that minister to the Mormons have begun to believe that it is wrong to expose the false doctrines of Mormonism (leaders who are unfamiliar with Mormon teachings my want to browse through Chapter 13, “Back to Basics,” for a brief overview). They say that it is all right to discuss our differences and demonstrate the problems we see with the LDS teachings, but looking a Mormon in the eye and calling him or her to repentance is too aggressive, too confrontational. Mormons smile and nod their heads in agreement, giving credibility to an ineffective approach that they can live with.

While the general Christian body sits quietly by, happily greeting the Mormons now showing up among them, the highly energized, heavily supported LDS missionary effort is stealing sheep from the same Christian flock by the hundreds of thousands. As we will see, the false doctrines of Mormonism are leading millions of precious people into a Christless eternity.

[1] Saints Alive Newsletter, September, 1989, page 3, quoting "The Latter Day Sun"

I just want to let you know that because of your web site, I have had two different friends come to me inquiring about the church. They have not started taking the discussions yet, but have shown great interest. I enjoy reading your articles because they give me new topics to study and have greatly heightened my interest in church history. I've just ordered two new books on church history including the Brigham Young’s Discourses. I assume you mean well by what you do and hope that one day you'll see how people like you fit into Gods plan of separating the wheat from the tares. I look at you as a wolf among the sheep that kills off the old and diseased.

Thousands of LDS people…and I mean thousands of them from all over the world look at the same material that apparently gives you a good laugh and they see the truth in it and ask some real questions, eventually leaving the church to become simple free from guilt Christians. Here are two examples.

I just got through reading an entire page of "Ed Bashing." Just to let you know, if the critics of your ministry actually investigated the Mormon church, they would realize that even if not all your points are valid (which they are), they still are following a false doctrine written by the world's greatest con artist trying to become equal with God by becoming gods themselves.

I am meeting with some Mormons who come to my home. I have been delighted with the resource information contained on your website. It is very helpful and I thank you for it. As the Mormon young men told their story about the "revelations" received by young Joseph Smith, it reminded me of the visions and tales told by Shirley McLain, the occult New-Age actress. Later as I reviewed some of your website I became convinced that young Joseph must have dealt with things occult.

My testimony of the Gospel is not an intellectual one based on the arm of flesh but rather a testimony like Peters which was given to me by God through the holy ghost. I find it incredible that anyone could be so incredibly motivated to discredit another church without having some personal gain. How much money have you made with all of your books and movies Ed?

The royalties from my books and films are not paid to me but are paid directly to the Ministry of Saints Alive for the distribution of free and low cost materials and outreaches. Has always been that way and always will be. My wife and I have always been among the top 5 donors / personal supporters of the ministry. When the God Makers film was being produced, my wife and mortgaged our home and put the money into the project. It is called putting your money where your mouth [and heart] is.

I can't help but see the resemblance between a certain Judas Iscariot and yourself. You flatter yourself as a great scholar of the bible.

I have never said that I was a great scholar of the Bible. Why do you put words in my mouth that I don’t say and then mock them?? You should be ashamed of yourself. You do exactly what you accuse me of and do it without a blush. I do read it, study it, and have lived by its principles as a daily practice for over 29 years.

Do you really trust your great intellect enough to risk having fought against the true church of Christ. I mean let's just suppose that you are wrong. I mean Anyone can be wrong.

So could you. If I’m wrong in doing what I believe spiritually I must do, and you are right, I go into a paradise afterlife. If you are wrong and I am right, you go to hell.

You obviously feel that all of the Latter Day Saints are just blindly following the church leaders. Like no one is doing their temple work, no one studies the bible etc. Well, wouldn't that be a shock to stand before Jesus and find out you actually spent the majority of your life fighting against him.

That is the Mormon Jesus I am against, the one born when Heavenly father had sex with his daughter, Mary, the one who was voted to be our savior by the heavenly council, the one who points the way, but isn’t our personal way, the one who died so we can be raised up to judged for our works, the one who sweat drops of blood for us in the Garden, who didn’t die on Calvary for our sins, the one who lied when he said the gates of hell would not prevail against his church…Is that the one you are talking about???

I know that even when I was completely inactive, scanning porn sites, living it up, being as evil as I possibly could etc. I still would have never listened to someone like you.

Now, that I'm back in the church, and am actually living the gospel, and feel the spirit healing me and helping me put off the natural man, helping me see women as they should truly be seen and feeling love for everybody (members and non members alike) I know that this is NO CULT.

Says you... Yet the entire body of evangelical Christianity says it is… so take your pick.

No matter how you try to define it. But anyway, we love the sinner but hate the sin. We love you and your followers but hate to see you waste so much of your effort in such a fruitless labor.

It is hardly unfruitful. When tens of thousands of Mormons/ Masons/ others listen and act Biblically on what they see/hear/read, we are hardly fruit-less.

Unfortunately, the majority of the people who will listen to you will give up Christianity altogether. That must give you a lot of satisfaction.

Sorry, you would like to believe that, but the vast majority become members of an orthodox Church. Probably over 95%.

I feel sicker visiting your web site then I used feel when visiting some of the porn sites. I don't see too much of a difference. I mean I had such a sick feeling reading your articles.

Why didn't the Lord testify to me that they were true? I mean why didn't I feel the warm promptings of the spirit as I read your articles. Very curious.

No. you pray to this man-god living near the great star Kolob, so busy with his many wives… A false god and a false spirit. Of course it isn’t going to give you witness to leave him/it/them.

What is the name of your particular denomination? There's no such thing as a non denomination.

There certainly is. You seem to know very little about Christian church structures.

Surely you must be man enough to commit to some set of beliefs. Anyone can just stand aside and critic others. Where are your beliefs so we can see your errors. Are you going to just say the bible. Certainly, anyone can see that the bible can be interpreted many ways. What is your interpretation? Or are you afraid of exposing yourself to error? Your general set of beliefs doesn't qualify in my mind. I want to know the nitty gritty.

I’m very sorry, but there is no nitty-gritty in Christian Orthodoxy. The gospel is simple…man makes it complicated and buries truth in the nitty-gritties of vain imaginations…like becoming gods and goddesses.. So sad…

I believe in one God, the Father Almighty, Maker of heaven and earth and of all things visible and invisible.

And in one Lord Jesus Christ, the only-begotten Son of God, begotten of His Father before all worlds, God of God, Light of Light, Very God of Very God, Begotten, not made, being of one substance with the Father, By whom all things were made;

Who for us men and our salvation came down from heaven and was incarnate by the Holy Ghost of the Virgin Mary and was made man; and was crucified also for us under Pontius Pilate. He suffered and was buried; and the third day He rose again according to the Scriptures; and ascended into heaven, and sitteth on the right hand of the Father; And He shall come again with glory to judge both the quick and the dead; whose kingdom shall have no end.

And I believe in the Holy Ghost, the Lord and Giver of Life, Who proceedeth from the Father and the Son, who with the Father and the Son together is worshipped and glorified, who spake by the prophets. And I believe one holy Christian and Apostolic Church. I acknowledge one Baptism unto the remission of sins, And I look for the resurrection of the dead, and the life of the world to come. Amen.

"That we henceforth be no more children, tossed to and fro, and carried about with every wind of doctrine, by the sleight of men, and cunning craftiness, whereby they lie in wait to deceive; but speaking the truth in love, may grow up into him in all things, which is the head, even Christ." (Ephesians 4:14-15)

"For there shall arise false Christs and false prophets, and shall show great signs and wonders; inasmuch that, if it were possible, they shall deceive the very elect, Behold, I have told you before.

Wherefore if they shall say unto you, Behold, he is in the desert; go not forth: behold, he is in the secret chambers; believe it not." (Matt 24:24-26)

Just in case a latter-day prophet has come to you and said that God has told him all these creeds were abominations to Him (filthy in his eyes), and all those who profess them are corrupt, take a real hard look at this prophet.

I tell you that the gospel of Jesus Christ has not left the earth since it "was once and for all delivered." It never did! It is the very same today as it was the day Christ died for your sins and mine . . . on the Cross of Calvary, where He became our sin offering and put the gospel He preached into reality. It's there for you today, just as it was that day He paid the price. Will you take action today in response to His gift?

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