Welcome to stand to reason. I'm your host for today, Robbie Lashawa. I'm filling in for Greg and I have a very special guest back with me and my friend Eric Johnson from Mormonism Research Ministry.

He's recently written a new book that you all need to purchase. It's called introducing Christianity to Mormons.

We've already done an episode on the book and talked about how it's laid out and what he hopes this book will be able to accomplish.

And so if you want to check that out, you should go listen to our previous episode. But today we are going to be talking about Mormon theology and Christian theology and misconceptions and a whole bunch of different things. So Eric, welcome back to the show.

Thanks for having me, Robbie.

Yeah, why don't you tell our listeners a little bit about you and the ministry that you're a part of and where they can plug in with what you're doing.

We have a website mrm.org, a ministry called Mormonism Research Ministry, founded by Bill McKiever in 1979.

I have been with Bill since 1989, volunteering and then in 2010, I moved to Utah, Sandy, Utah to be in the middle of things.

And so Bill and I are full time in this. We have some other people on our staff. We none of us have ever been LDS. We all come from a Gentile perspective, if you will, because Latter-day Saints believe that they are the true Jews.

But we just have a love for the Mormon people. So we want to present in churches and tell people about what Mormonism is all about and how to best be able to explain the Christian gospel to our Latter-day Saints friends and family members.

Also, we do a lot of evangelism. So those are the two main purposes to get the information out. But our website is a great place to go.

We also have a podcast. It's a radio show. We've been doing it for 10 years now. It's called Viewpoint on Mormonism. Actually, it's 11 years in July. So 11 years we've been doing this. And we have over 3000 podcasts that you can look at our archives and go on any topic pretty much.

We have covered it. We've talked about it. We try to stay on the cutting edge there. That's mainly what we do. And just faith supported. So we're a 501c3 that just wants to help the church out to be there and be somebody who can actually put the time in to do the research necessary to understand where this church is going and where it's been.

Well, and I think that that's important as we're going to discuss today, kind of even the structure of the Mormon church. And there's so much to keep up on. Right. It's it's not like a, oh, I can understand their doctrine. And now I've got it because it is a religion that updates. I think that's a good way to put it. They update things. The new profit can update doctrines or update scripture. And so you do need to constantly be listening into their general conferences and to what the.

The first presidency is talking about in order to understand where they are currently because things change in their church. And I really do appreciate that you guys keep up on all of those different things because nobody has the time to do that unless it's your full time thing. Right.

I also tell people about you and Eric, I sincerely believe this to be the truth. Everything I read on Mormonism, it seems like everyone's just referring to you guys. And so I tell people, why don't you just go read their books because everybody else is just going to be quoting them.

I just, I try to guide people to you as the source. Because you've been doing it so long, because of your affiliation, you know, with Sandra and what she's been doing, Sandra Tanner, what she's been doing in Utah since the 60s. And I really appreciate your ministry. And there's been so many, so much good training, so much great fruit that's come out of what you and Bill are doing up there. So just appreciate you and appreciate having you on the show today.

Thank you for having me and I appreciate those kind words. You mentioned Sandra Gerald and Sandra Tanner have been doing ministry since the 1960s. He passed away in 2007. She's retiring in 2023 in March. So that ministry, the Utah Lighthouse ministry will be no more.

So there's not very many of us out here anymore. Back in the 80s, there seem to be a heyday. Walter Martin inspired a lot of people to be involved in this kind of ministry. Now a lot of us are older. And we're hoping that these kinds of ministries will continue, but we live in a postmodern age where truth doesn't matter as much as it used to.

And so I don't know how many Christians find the kind of work we do to be mission oriented, but it certainly is. And necessary, I think, to be able to stay up with these things because many more than half of the converts that come into Mormonism come from a Christian background.

And they love it when they talk to a person who calls himself a Christian and they say, well, we're Christian too. And before you know it, they're getting baptized into the oldest church.

Wow. Yeah. Well, appreciate what you're doing. So let's let's talk a little bit about one of the things I like to help people understand because I grew up in Northern Arizona. And most of Northern Arizona was founded by Mormons because Brigham Young sent them south and north. That's why Idaho, Utah and Arizona are very filled with Mormons.

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