Temple Square Experience

Nothing But the Blood of Jesus Got Me Kicked out 

Dear FPW's (Faithful Prayer Warriors),

 

Yesterday was our Temple Square Field Trip. I have to say that I do feel empathy for the LDS Temple Security guards because we arrived with about 50 missionaries and as we pulled into the parking lot the mission team from Ankeny, Iowa, was also unloading (I am guessing with about 30 or so more missionaries). LDS Temple Security's job is to NOT allow Christians to witness to their people and 80 well trained Christian missionaries invaded their turf. This reminds me of our Lord's promise found in Matthew chapter 16, Jesus said, "I will build my Church and the gates of hell shall not prevail against it." Try as they might to hold the fort, yesterday, we stormed the gates and there was nothing they could do to hold us back. 

 

DO NOT GET THE WRONG IDEA!!! We were not making a scene of any kind, we were just one-on-one speaking the truth, quietly and in love. And, I think I can speak for the LDS Security when I say that this type of  battle is a nightmare for them to fight because how do you kick godly Christians who love Jesus and are only speaking truth about Jesus off of the property of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints without looking like the bad guy. Yesterday a multitude of LDS people were challenged with the truths about Jesus and His glorious gospel message.

 

 I wish you could have been a fly on the wall last night as the groups arrived home and shared their stories. I also wish I could have each of the Christian missionaries share their amazing stories with you but as that is obviously not possible I will share a personal experience that I had yesterday with a young LDS lady named Nancy. Multiply my story by 100 and you will get an idea of the impact we had on Temple Square yesterday...

 

I was on the sidewalk just outside the North Gate at Temple Square passing out Jesus Christ / Joseph Smith DVDs when Nancy walked by. I offered her a free DVD and she responded by saying something like this, "No thank you, I am VERY happy in my religion!". 

 

And, I smiled and said, "I am VERY happy that you are happy." Not exactly sure why I said that - it just came out - but it must have caught her attention because a few moments later she walked back to me and asked, "What is your agenda?"

 

So again I smiled and said, "I think that Jesus is the most important person who ever lived on this earth and I think that His words are the most important words that were ever spoken. I just want the LDS people to trust Jesus and His words."

 

Nancy looked puzzled and asked, "You don't think we believe in Jesus?"

 

I think my response caught her off guard, I said, "I think you love Jesus but I don't think you know what Jesus actually taught."

 

Again she looked puzzled so I pulled out one of our new 4 step witnessing tracts (The Eternal Marriage Tract) and said, "I think this may help you to understand my point."(These tracts are GREAT because they draw them into the conversation and lead them down the path we want them to go. It is almost impossible for the conversation to get side tracked.)

 

This was when Nancy asked, "Can we sit down in there and talk about this?" and she pointed inside Temple Square to a bench in the shade. 

 

I said, "They won't let us talk about this inside of Temple Square."

 

She said, "I think it will be okay, nobody will care."

 

So I shrugged my shoulders and said, "Why not", and we went in, sat down and continued our conversation. I was surprised that we were able to sit there and talk as long as we did - probably for about 30 minutes. Then an LDS security guy spotted us and strolled by. A few minutes later he came back with 4 other big bouncer security guys and said, "We can't let you have this kind of a conversation on our property!"

 

Nancy said, "Oh, it's okay, we are just having a very nice conversation about what Jesus taught."

 

The Guard said, "No, you don't understand, you cannot have this type of discussion on temple property."

 

So I asked, "We can't talk about Jesus on Jesus Christ's property?"

 

The Guard then told us that it was really my T-shirt that bothered them. He said that if I wasn't wearing that shirt they would probably let us continue. 

 

I GET REALLY FRUSTRATED WITH CHRISTIANS THAT THINK THERE IS SOMETHING CHRISTIAN ABOUT MORMONISM!!! 

 

How could this shirt be offensive to any true Christian???

 

THE FRONT SAYS

 

 

THE BACK SAYS

 

 

At this point in the confrontation, Nancy said, "This is my fault, I asked him to come in here and sit down, it's MY fault, we will finish our conversation out there." 

 

So, we finished our conversation outside the gate. This was an amazing conversation because Nancy was what we would call a "Molly Mormon" - she was wholly sold out for Mormonism. And we discussed in detail the LDS doctrines of Eternal Marriage, The Preexistence, The Great Apostasy of the Christian Church, and Priesthood Authority. I was able to explain to her that none of these foundational doctrines of the LDS Church were ever taught by Jesus and in fact Jesus flat out disagreed with them. She was visibly shaken. 

 

She then bore her LDS testimony and I was able to show her, using LDS Church materials, that her testimony based upon feelings could not be trusted. I told her that the only person she could fully trust was Jesus and that the only words that would stand the test in the final judgment were the very Words of Jesus himself. Before my conversation with Nancy ended she promised that she would read the Gospel of John with the eyes of a child - that is she would read Jesus Christ's words and just trust Jesus to be true. Nancy also promised that she would contact me by e-mail to continue this discussion. 

 

Please pray for Nancy, our conversation was earth shattering to her. I am certain she had a very bad night last night wrestling with the truths we had discussed. Please, pray with me for God to open Nancy's eyes to His truth. AND, also pray for all the other LDS people who were challenged in similar ways by the army of Christian missionaries that invaded Temple Square yesterday.