These poor missionaries didn’t know what they were getting themselves into.
I recently went for a run. Afterward, I was enjoying a nice stretch in the warm sun when I saw two guys dressed in suits walking toward me. Ahh, I knew what was about to happen.
I was about to proclaim the Gospel to a couple of missionaries!
The young men kindly greeted me and then started talking about the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints.
One of them, apparently the leader, started reading from the Book of Mormon. Something from the Book of Jacob, I think.
I listened for a bit, but couldn’t quite understand what he was saying. So I smiled as I cut him off and said, “Do you guys know the Gospel of Jesus Christ?”
I didn’t give them a chance to answer.
The Summation of the Gospel of Jesus Christ
“It’s summed up in 2 Corinthians 5:19 – in Christ God was reconciling the world to himself, not counting their trespasses against them, and entrusting the message of reconciliation to us.”
“Did you catch that?” I asked. And then I repeated, “In Christ God was reconciling the world to himself, not counting our trespasses against us.”
“Isn’t that amazing?!? It’s a game changer! We’ve always been taught that God’s job is to count our trespasses against us. And here it says that God is reconciling the world back to God without counting anything against us. The Good News is that we are all saved and it’s our job to spread that message to everyone so we can share in God’s reconciliation of the world!”
They listened politely to me as I obnoxiously took over the conversation. But I don’t know exactly what these Missionaries had been taught. But I wanted to give them a sense of how big God’s salvation project is. It involves the whole world.
The Consecrated Church
They then told me that God had consecrated his church. For what? I don’t know for sure.
But I asked them what church God had consecrated. They responded, “The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints.”
“Really?!?” I replied. “What about other churches? What about Catholics or Methodists or Baptists or the United Church of Christ? Has God only consecrated your church?”
They didn’t answer, but just kind of walked around the question. So I asked it again, because this is such an important point. If God only consecrates one church or even just one religion, that’s a pretty small God.
“What judge ye?” the leader asked.
His old English threw me off track. I hastily replied, “I’m not judging you. I’m just asking questions. I want to know what you think.”
He assured me that he was just asking what I thought, not telling me that I was judging him.
So I told him that God isn’t stingy in the whole consecration business. If God is reconciling the whole world, then the whole world is consecrated. To consecrate something is to make is sacred. So you are consecrated, they are consecrated, we are all consecrated.
I was close to asking the congregation for an “AMEN” but realized I was in the parking lot of my apartment.
After we talked a little more, I asked if I wished them well and walked to my apartment.
The Missionaries Return
They knocked on my door the next day. “Oh hey! It’s you guys!” We chatted a bit about their experience. They told me they were both from Utah and being very productive in their missionary work.
Why did I talk to them? I think it’s because I want to tell people that God is so much bigger than any of our religions. It’s easy for any of us to think our group or religion is the special one called by God. Well, it is. But so are the other groups and other religions.
Because God is bigger than any religion can contain.
