This tweet was brought to my attention (name removed) and it got me thinking. This kind of comment has been made a few times.
So the thinking is that because around 6 people were stood outside my event, that confirms to me even more that I am in the one true religion in the world.
Look at us, weren’t we nasty.
So that got me thinking more, here is a pic of a group of people protesting against religious fundamentalism, 300 were there apparently
So according to this line of thought Mormons, you should be joining up with those fundamentalists ASAP think how strong their testimonies must be after this!
Oops my bad, actually Lady Gaga is the one true Artist………Do you see what I am saying, get over yourselves Mormons, if the true Church is the most persecuted Church, you dont even compare.
So this is it…. the final day of the reach out to Mormons at the British Pageant 2013.
Today saw a record number of papers being given out, and once more some people more people came to talk to us :-
Every person that I spoke to tonight this was at least the second time they had been to the pageant, so I think by now some people where getting a little bit tired of us being there! One person cried out the window “Your wasting your time mate!!” to which my reply was “preaching the gospel is not a waste of time”.
I again felt so sorry for some of these guys who had clearly not been told the truth regarding some things in there own teachings. The subject came up about the book of Abraham that is in the pearl of great price. They had no idea about the fact it had been proven to be falsely translated.
If you would like more information on this please click the link below :-
Lucy had a tract on this subject and was able to give it to the people asking the questions about it.
Right at the end we spoke to a Lady who said that we are in error because we don’t accept that today we have a priesthood. I showed her Hebrews 1:1-2, to which she said “your not using the Kings James Bible” – I showed the side of it, and then showed her the front – to which she then said “well…that bit must not have been translated right”……..”you young man need to read the book of Mormon”, I said “with all due respect why would I need to when God has already given me the answer in the bible?” She left pretty sharp after that!!
So that as they say is that……. its over!!
Thank you so much everyone for your prayers, for your support at the reach out, and thank you Chapel house Christian fellowship who every night have shown there support to reaching out to these people. And as much as it pains me to say Bobby Gilpin – your organisation and commitment to this reach out campaign has been brilliant. Thank you so much for organising this and getting on my nerves prior to this event to make sure it all ran smoothly. It has been a pleasure to work along side you as well as others.
Finally thank you Mormons for giving us the opportunity to come and talk to you, we have been here for the last 2 weeks because we love you. We want you to know the truth about Jesus, and we want you to know the truth about your prophets and tell you the stuff the leaders would rather you did not know.
If you have any issues or would like to discuss anything to any member here at UK Partnerships for Christ, we would love to here from you.
Well the third night came and went with a few chats, but mostly quite quiet. I tried doing the Jesus Survey that you can find at TriGrace ministries and found that to be very good. It really helps show the significant differences between what Jesus taught and the LDS Church teaches.
Despite it being quiet it was great to see the positive connection we were building with some of the LDS people. During the day myself and Jason Thickpenny met up with a couple of LDS missionaries in Chorley Town centre and we were able to explain more why we are doing this. Not out of any hatred towards Mormons but just out of a desire to explain the Biblical gospel to them, naturally they disagreed but we had a chance to share the gospel and they said they understood and respected why we were doing what we were doing.
On the 4th day (sat 3rd) we got up at 5am and went straight to Leeds to do the same thing at a Jehovah’s Witness Convention. This made witnessing at the Mormon Pageant seem so nice and easy in comparison. There was apparently 6.500 people there.
Jason Thickpenny an ex Witness did some preaching to the witnesses on the fact that the Biblical teaching on the Nature and sufficiency of Jesus being so different to the Jehovah’s Witness teachings.
For me and others we mostly held up some signs, in the hope that this would get them thinking.
On this same day one of the sessions at this convention was teaching the attendees that Apostates are mentally diseased and dine with Satan. It was clear that for many of them this very clearly included us. I was able to have discussion with someone going through the early studies to join the Jehovah’s Witnesses, I was able to challenge him on issues such as false prophecies and the fact that the organization teaches that salvation is only found with them. Naturally he was not aware of this, please pray that he makes contact with me or looks this stuff up.
Then that night we came back (being very tired) and got back out to the Pageant. This was a much better night, for me it brought the most discussions of the week, I think this was the case for others too.
As well on this night I was able to speak to one of the organizers of the event. I think for the first time all week I got into a discussion with him about Joseph Smith and some of the issues raised by him. One of them was the translation process of the Book of Mormon. It seemed this guy was convinced as are many other LDS that this is how that process worked
For the most part I think the LDS church has communicated to its members that the plates were present and Joseph using a urrim and thummim dictated the words from the plates. The reality is however very different, Joseph put his head in his hat with the same seer stone he (unsuccessfully) attempted to find treasure with and dictated the supposed translation from there. I told this guy that this had previously been shown in an Ensign magazine, he did not believe this, in case he or any others are interested here it is.
“Joseph Smith would put the seer stone into a hat and put his face in the hat, drawing it closely around his face to exclude the light. And in the darkness the spiritual light would shine. A piece of something resembling parchment would appear, and on that appeared the writing. One character at a time would appear and under it was the interpretation in English. Brother Joseph would read off the English to Oliver Cowdery, who was his principal scribe. And when it was written down and repeated to Brother Joseph to see if it was correct, then it would disappear, and another character with the interpretation would appear. Thus the Book of Mormon was translated by the gift and power of God and not by any power of man. The characters I speak of are the engravings on the golden plates from which the book was translated.”11
So anyway all in all this has been a seriously great week of witnessing. I think we have built a good relationship with many of the event organizers and volunteers and despite the fact that they (i am sure) would rather not have us there, I think they appreciate that we are there out of genuine concern for them, with no desire to cause trouble or “protest”.
I am now back home and all done but there are still others there for the 2nd week. Please pray for these guys and if you are going along please say hi.
Hi all we had a great day on the 19th looking at the upcoming Mormon Pageant in Chorley and the great outreach opportunity that this will be. This ministry is unashamedly open in the fact that we intend on being there in July/August to have as many witnessing encounters with Mormons as possible. We will not be there with banners saying “Mormonism is a Cult” (though we cant account for whoever else might turn up) but rather we will seek to lovingly share Jesus in light of the unbiblical teachings of Mormonism.
Anyway you may have noticed the invite to the training day on the 19th of January. For those who didnt make it, particularly understandable with the weather on the day, we have the talks given below on video and audio (right click and save target as to download the audios), please enjoy and let me know on bobbygilpin@gmail.com or comment below if you would like to be involved or you have any comments and questions on this.
This post is particularly to the Brits, and those in surrounding areas, and its just to invite you to a very important event on the 19th of January 2013.
In the way of background as some readers may know I have been to Utah for three years running now on outreach trips to Mormons. In the last two of those the highlight has been joining a number of other Christians doing street outreach to people walking into the Manti Miracle Pageant, in Manti, Utah. every night around 14000 people mostly Mormons go to this event and there are around 200 Christians there seeking to engage many of these people into respectful gospel centred discussions. Let me say right now that this is not a protest. There was no one that I could see shouting at Mormons calling Mormonism a cult like you often see at General Conference, but rather people genuinely seeking just to have some discussions.
You can see and hear some of the discussions I had over there here.
Anyway next year the Mormon Church is doing its first ever pageant outside of the US and that is going to be held at the Chorley Temple Grounds in the UK. This is going to be the best opportunity in the UK to do some street outreach to Mormons since the opening of the temple in 1998. My hope is to see that we have a positive Christian witness where we can lovingly engage any Mormons that will speak to us in some gospel centred dialogue. Again this will be no protest (at least on my part I cannot stop others going) and anyone that does not wish to speak to us will be very welcome to pass on by.
The Dates for this pageant are:
Week one.
Wednesday July 31st
Thursday August 1st
Friday August 2nd
Saturday August 3rd
Week Two.
Tuesday August 6th
Wednesday August 7th
Thursday August 8th
Friday August 9th
Saturday August 10th
So as a forerunner to this we are having a training day on the 19th of January 2013 from 10am until 4pm at Chapel House Christian Fellowship, 3 Moor Road, Chorley, Lancashire. PR7 2LW.
On this day myself and Ian Moulton the Pastor of this Church will be looking at Mormonism in relation to Christianity, some helpful ideas for witnessing points, and how to respectfully engage Mormons in Dialogue.
If you are unsure if you would want to do the pageant outreach but want to learn more about witnessing to Mormons please come, if you don’t feel you would need a day like this but are interesting in being involved with this please still come so we can meet you, and everyone in between these thoughts who can make it please come. There is no charge, refreshments are provided but you will need to bring or go out for lunch.
All of that said if you can’t make the day and would like to be involved with the outreach that’s absolutely fine. Please let me know if this is you and I would love to help you in anyway that I can.
If you have any questions on this please email me on bobbygilpin@gmail.com. We also have a Facebook event set up for this day here.
The Blog Of Mormon 