Freedom to Make Up Rules Means Less Freedom

The other day I saw two ladies in the park who I assumed were Mormons looking for people to talk to. I was concerned for the friends I was with, and thought about what I would say if my friends ever asked me about Mormonism.

I decided I would have said, “They bind rules on people that God has not bound. They claim God wants you not to do certain things that God actually never forbade. Saying things in the name of God that are not true makes one a liar. In the Judgment Day God is going to say, 'Did I tell you to tell people this or that in my name? Did you tell people I said they couldn't do thus and so?'”

In the past, when asked about any kind of fake Christianity, my automatic reaction was to start off with, “Well, they don't agree with the Bible. They teach a lot of stuff that's not in the Bible.”

However, one of the friends I was with that day doesn't agree with the Bible either, and if I had responded with, “Well, they're not really teaching the Bible” that might have flown right past him.

At the same time I knew he believed in a God, so I felt he would more readily understand the concept that these people are claiming to speak for God and making up rules that God never told them to chain people with.

At any rate I was tired of hearing, “Well, everybody has their own personal standard of right and wrong, so you can never tell somebody they are right or wrong, you know as long as you're not hurting anybody, all religions teach people to be good.”

I thought I would just ask point blank, “Are they making up rules that God never made, and attempting to curtail my freedom? I can most certainly call them out on that.”

In the past, I did tell a Mormon on the subway, “Well, I believe verse such and such contradicts your doctrine of such and such.” The next time I meet a Mormon I will try this rebuttal instead:

“I believe in Galatians 1:8 where it says,
'But even if we or an angel from heaven should preach to you a gospel contrary to the one we preached to you, let him be accursed.'

That angel gave Joseph Smith a vastly different gospel. So according to Galatians 1:8 shouldn't Joseph Smith and that angel be accursed for giving us an entirely different gospel? You're trying to bind rules on me that God never commanded.”

This article was originally written 2018.07.05