Spiritual Answers and Reasons for Faith
It's been a very difficult time for us. My father-in-law died suddenly and we are all in a state of shock. We loved him very much.
posted by Jill Martin Rische at 9:08 PM
Managing Editor on the bestseller The Kingdom of the Cults; co-author of The Kingdom of the Occult (Thomas Nelson, 2008). My family makes every day special. I love writing and feel so fortunate to be able to do what I love. My Dad used to sing me a sweet song, "Jill stole my heart away." He had a song for each one of his kids. He was always singing--off key and on. I think his secret dream was to be an opera singer. . . or an actor . . . or maybe the Heavyweight Champion of the World like his friend, Rocky Marciano.
16 Comments:
Our condolences to you and your family (and especially to Kevin).
Our prayers are with you and all of the family. God comfort those who mourn the loss of their loved one.
Since you attended Oral Roberts university and must be a fan of his, are you going to write now that you are going to die unless you make 10 million dollars off the lies you published about the Mormon religion? How many young missonaries does your church have working 10 hours per day and 6 days per week to help the hurricane Ike victims in Galveston? The Mormons have about 1500. Any church that tells me it is the only way to get to heaven including the Mormons is lying and that includes your church.
you simply are not going to publish my comment because you disagree with it. So be it. Do not allow this lady to post any more lies about Mormons either moderator. I suspect you are part of her family.
Do you not believe Mormons have difficult times when they lose loved ones? I just lost my brother last week and must be one of the saddest people on earth. I forget Mormons are not human to you. I feel bad about your loss. Stay the way you are. Jerry
You do not seem to have a problem insulting and lying about almost 14 million Mormons. Do you not remember when Oral Roberts went on national television and told his congregation if they did not donate a huge sum of money to him, I do not remember the total but can locate it, then God was going to allow him to die. What a shyster! I do not remember 1 single Mormon criticizing this hypocrite. You and your Father are only interested in making all the money you can by lying about these humble Mormon people because You know they will not fight back. I am Mormon and I will take you and all your greedy gang on lady. If the Mormons want me to resign so be it but I am fighting back against despicable people such as you lady. Like Father Like daughter huh? I have not been to Oral Roberts University nor do I ever care to but I am confident I can generate more constructive thoughts in my brain in 30 seconds than you can with yours all day long. It will not take much to remove the skeletons from your closet and write a book on you. You had best attempt to remove the log in your own eye before you attempt to find the splinter in another' s. God is not happy with your lies simply to make money. May God get through your cold heart and remove Satan from your soul. Only then will you be fit to get on your knees and ask Jesus forgiveness.
Thank you John and Sayso for your kind words. They are very much appreciated.
Jerry,
I am so sorry for your loss. My brother is very ill and I know how painful it is to think of losing him.
Cidron and Jerry,
You are both entitled to your opinions. All I can say is if I am wrong about Mormonism, please show me where and why.
Thank you,
Jill
Just a final note--your comments were published late due to funeral services and family matters related to the death of my father-in-law. I always intended to post them.
Jerry and Cidron,
You may find this interesting:
https://waltermartin.com/2008/11/god-is-moving-in-hearts-of-mormon.html
Hi Jill: First of all I am truly sorry for the loss of your Father in law and the ill health of your brother. I pray that God may give you and all the loved ones of your Father in Law comfort. I also pray that your brother makes a full recovery. I pray for all of these things in the name of Jesus Christ, my Savior, Amen. I have only been a member of the Church of Latter Day Saints for 1 year and when you came up with those 10 amazing reasons the Mormons were so evil I was shocked. I have never been told such things other than that one can baptized for his deceased family members. I begin to wander if the church was holding things back from me. A menber only gets to vist one of the temples after being a member for 1 year and on January 6 I plan on going to the temple. Before I met the Mormons I was so depressed I wanted to die. I took medication and that did not help. My former wife betrayed me 10 years ago so I divorced her. I have 2 beautiful daughters but the younger one who is married never comes around unless she wants money it seems. My eldest daughter was born with a brain tumor and lives with me most of the time. A penecostal Preacher had come by my house about 2 months before I met the Mormons and had opened a new church only 1 block from my house. I expressed my interest in being baptized to him and he said he had a sistern in the church and it could be done there. He promised to call me in a couple of days. I have not heard from him since.The Mormons believe in the Father, God, the son, Jesus Christ, and the Holy Spirit. Those are the 3 main things I believe and that you can only get to God through his son Jesus. I have read the Book of Mormon and it speaks of Joseph Smith but also spreaks of Jesus Christ very much. I do not worship Joseph Smith. I worship Jesus Christ my Savior and Redeemer. The lady seems to be the boss in the Mormons family I have come to know and love. I love the singing of the Mormons. I am stil depressed but on Sunday I always seem to feel better.As far as proving these things to you the only think I know to do is for you to come to a Mormon church and see for yourself. If I find any of these allegations to be true about my church then I would resign but if I can not trust the Mormons who have been so nice to me then I probably would never join another church. It is my belief that you can set in your home and worship God each Sunday and maybe fast a couple of Sundays per month and make cetain God gets his 10% tithing in someway. I am not the most intelligent person on earth but I simply think it would be impossible for anyone to brain wash me. I thank you for your response and I will take these 10 things you mentioned to my former Bishop who is a good friend and ask him about the truth. He will not lie. Some thigs are taken out of context and blown way out of proportion. The Mormons are the most kind, generous, and hardest working people I have ever known. Thanks Jill and once again I express my condolences and will pray for your brother today, tonight, and during sacrement tomorrow. I if I offended anyone with my remarks before. I simply think my soul is the most important thing ever and I want to do the things that please Jesus Christ my Savior. May God bless you and all of your loved ones. Jerry
Always the high road, Jill. That's the love of Jesus.
I tried to look up Rische in the St. Paul Pioneer Press so I could see where to send flowers. But I never saw a listing.
Brian James Shanley
Jerry,
Thank you for your condolences and for sharing so much of your heart. I am so very sad to hear how difficult your life has been.
I did not write those 10 Amazing Facts to hurt anyone. I wrote them because so many Mormons I talk to have never heard them before. I felt they should know the truth about what their church believes.
When they read them, they become very upset and I can understand why. My answer is always this: If you can prove me wrong, please do so. My eternity is in the balance, too. So far, no one has done so.
I know the Mormon people are very kind to new believers, and that would be a difficult thing to turn away from, especially when you have been through so much heartache.
All I can tell you is this--the Jesus of the Mormons is not the Jesus of the Bible. Brigham Young stated that the Mormon Jesus was NOT conceived by the Holy Spirit. The Bible tells us that He WAS conceived by the Holy Spirit (Matthew 1:18). Who is telling the truth?
I believe the Word of God over the words of Brigham Young. The Mormons have a different Jesus and a different gospel. They are not Christians.
I am very sorry to hear that the Pentecostal preacher did not show the compassion or love he should have shown toward you. It is terrible, but please do not judge all Christians by this man.
If I can answer any of your questions, please write to me anytime. Now that the funeral and family gatherings are over, I will be able to get back to you quickly.
Jill
Thank you, Brian--we appreciate the thought. The obituary ran in both the Pioneer Pres and the Star Tribune--I think it was on Wednesday, December 3rd. We also had a public online guestbook.
Thanks for thinking of us.
Jill I am truly sorry for the loss of your brother and I pray that God comforts you and all of your brother's loved ones. I have lost 6 family members and 6 dear friends in the last 2 years and I know words are not much comfort but praying is. I am so sorry about going overboard with my previous posts. That is not the real me. I was simply so distraught over the total unexpected loss of my brother after all the other deaths of my loved ones, I did not word my blog correctly. I have prayed for God's fogiveness and seek yours as well. I have only been a Mormon for just about 14 months. I had never joined a church although I was raised in a good southern Christian home and tutored every single day by my dear mother from the Bible. My mom was Penecostal and my dad was Baptist. There was no conflict between mom and dad but they agreed to allow us kids to go to either church or stay home and be tutored and believe me I was the only one stupid enough to stay home and I was tutored. I have never heard anything from the Mormons that lead me to believe the things you said are true. Some of their beliefs are similar to about 3 on your lists but were taken out of context. The Mormons do believe that we were with God before we came to earth. We were offered the chance to come to earth by God to progress in the learning process only because we agreed to so we our memory was erased even as babies when we returned here. Once we leave this earth there are 3 possible places to go. The number one is the Celestial Kingdom for the people who have served God and kept his commandments. The second is a place where a person was not necessarily evil but did small things that offended God. The third is spirit prison for the very evil people and evil slight as it may be they are given another chance by God if they prove to him they deserve it. I know some of this sounds as if it cam out of a fairy tale. Shortly before meeting the Mormons I met a Penecostal minister who was opening a new church about a block from my house. I could see the church from my house in fact. He asked if I was interested in coming to church and I told him that I ws so depressed I ready and I wanted to be baptized. He told me he would contact me within 4 days. I have not heard from this man yet. Then the Mormons took me in and were very patient with me. I would not even discuss joining their church in the first month. after then I knew I was going to take my own life if something did not change so I agreed to join the church as long as I could ask any question that differed from my beliefs. I am very familiar with the King James version of the Bible and have read it several times. I had several differences and they attempted to explain to me. The ones I agreed with then I moved on to the ones I did not agree with and told them they could kick me out of their church but I would never change my mind. I showed them in the Bible where they were wrong. That night they called me and said I was right and they were wrong. I was baptized over 1 year ago. With every religion claiming to be the only way to get to heaven I am afraid of all of then. The Mormons did save my life no doubt in my mind when others seemed to care less. They are a very humble people who will not defend themselves against violence or slander. I have not heard them speak bad of another religion. Joseph Smith plays a role but Jesus Christ plays the key role. Never is a prayer said or a testimony given without being given in the name of Jesus. I do not claim to be a theologist and I suspect your knowledge is far superior to mine on all subjects except the Old and New Testaments. No matter what church I worship in I am always going to pray through Jesus to get to God and do my best to keep God's commandments. The Mormons know how stubborn I can be and have not mentioned dissmissing me from the church. If that were their decision I would not be offended. i would simply worship at home and see that God got his 10% of my wages.Thank you and once again I am truly sorry.
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