Mormons, Mormons, Everywhere.

It's a fascinating thing to be asked if you're part of a cult. But here in Ukraine, pretty much any religion other than Russian or Ukrainian Orthodoxy is considered a cult. So according to the average person on the street, I am a member of a religious sect/cult. Just as I believe that the Mormons and Jehovah's Witnesses are cults, so the people here believe that I am a cultist.

A basic Christian definition of a cult is, "Any group which deviates from Biblical, orthodox, historical Christianity...i.e. They deny the Deity of Christ; His physical resurrection; His personal and physical return to earth and salvation by FAITH alone."

The Bible says that there is one way to heaven and that this one way is through belief in Jesus Christ, the Son of God. It says that God sent His only Son into the world, where He/Jesus was both God and man and He died for us, taking the terrible burden of all the sin- past, present and future upon Himself that we, through faith in Him, would no longer have to be separated from God. It doesn't say good works will get us to heaven, it doesn't say going to church will get us there, it certainly doesn't say that going on a two year mission will earn us the right to be in heaven. It's simply impossible for us to earn our way there, because we are imperfect and full of sin and He is perfect and spotless.

I've noticed several Mormons here in my neighborhood, but never had the chance to talk to them until today. This afternoon, as I headed out to the dreadful task of paying my bills, I spotted a group(not so hard to do) of Mormon boys going door to door just down from my building. As I had to walk by them anyway, I decided to cut right across their path and give them an opportunity to try to save my soul. I walked right up to one and asked in Russian if he spoke English. He was very excited by this question, as they were handing out advertisements for free English lessons. He replied in the affirmative and I asked where he was from. "Utah," was the answer given. Imagine that- a Mormon from Utah.

We started with small talk until his older, more experienced partner joined in. He asked what I was doing here and I told him. Then he wanted to know about IM and how a mission could be non-denominational. I decided that this was a fabulous chance to share the gospel with those boys and so proceeded to lay out the doctrinal statement of IM, which of course is a very clear gospel presentation. I explained that my goal in being here is to give people hope: Hope that is only found in Jesus Christ and in His gift of salvation; Hope that can not be attained through anything we ourselves can do; Hope that gives us assurance of eternal security and life with God after death; Hope that gives us complete confidence in our future, knowing that we have no control over it and it's completely in His hands. We had a good little chat and I waited for them to counter my gospel presentation. The best they did, however, was ask if I had ever read the Book of Mormon. I told them that I had indeed read it, as well as attended a Mormon Temple several times, lived with two Mormon girls for two years, had the Elder's weekly meetings in my college apartment for one year and spent many hours debating and discussing my beliefs vs. theirs. I said, "We all did our best, but I didn't convert them and they didn't convert me(Praise God!)." They didn't quite know what to say and just offered me their phone numbers if I had any questions. I smiled, wished them a good day and moved on, thanking God for the opportunity to very clearly share the gospel with two young men who have been so incredibly deceived and are now trying to pass that deception on to others.

Please pray for the country of Ukraine and the neighborhood of Tairovo. In a neighborhood of 250,000 people, there are multiple empty Orthodox churches and many busy JW's and Mormons hurrying to earn their "salvation" by converting others to their futile faith. As far as we know, our small church is the only gospel preaching church in this neighborhood. Please pray for us to continue to build relationships within this neighborhood and through our lives and our Hope, to draw people to the ultimate Giver of Hope.