Apologetics Class 9/24/2017

Today we continued our Mormonism series by watching Mormon Role-Play, Brett Kunkle:

Here is the note-taking form:

Mormon Elder Speaks to Crowd of Church Youth

 

1. Elder Kunkle: You probably believe something like this – Mormons are not C____________
2. Elder Kunkle: How would you d___________ a Christian, what is a Christian?
3. Someone answered “Someone who has been saved by Jesus and professes Him as their Lord and Savior”
4. “Mormons have a different d___________ of Jesus” – but Elder Kunkle affirmed that Jesus was:
   1. Born of the Virgin Mary
   2. Is the Son of God
   3. Lived a sinless, perfect life
   4. Died on the cross to atone for our sins
   5. Rose from the dead – bodily
5. “Jesus claimed to be God” – Elder Kunkle challenged, “Where did Jesus claim to be God?”
6. Elder Kunkle: (re: John 10:30) the oneness that Jesus is talking about is oneness in u_________.
7. Elder Kunkle: I affirm, “One Lord and One Savior”
8. Audience member says that his Bible does not say that God was once a man, like Mormonism believes. Elder Kunkle replies, “You don’t believe Jesus was a man?”  Person replies, “I’m not saying Jesus, I’m saying God”
9. Elder Kunkle: we believe in the Father, we believe in the Son, we believe in the Holy Spirit…I believe in the God of the Bible…. But one of the differences we have is the T________… the claim of the T_______ is that you have 3 beings in 1 being, but that is a patent contradiction.
10. One audience member brought up Jesus is considered to be Lucifer’s brother in Mormonism
11. Elder Kunkle: Colossians 1:15 – Jesus is the first b________ of all creation. So, He is the first born Son of God.
12. Elder Kunkle: If Jesus is God, in Matthew 26 Jesus is praying to God, but if Jesus is God, then He is just praying to h__________.
13. Elder Kunkle: There’s nowhere you can point to in Scripture to show the Trinity – where is the Trinity in the Bible?
14. One audience member brought up John 10:30 – I and the Father are one. Elder Kunkle replied that in this church, you probably all consider yourself to be “one”, but not the same b________.
15. Elder Kunkle: where in the Bible does it say that to be a Christian, you have to affirm that Jesus is Yahweh?
16. Elder Kunkle quotes John 14, where Jesus says, “The Father is g___________ than I”
17. One audience member says he has been “taught his doctrine” – he was indoctrinated differently
18. One audience member said you put your faith in a man who brought an a______________ book
19. Elder Kunkle: that’s all the Book of Mormon is – it’s God speaking through a m________
20. Elder Kunkle: Just like God built on the Old Testament and gave us the New Testament, God builds on the New Testament and gives us another t______________ of Jesus Christ (BoM)
21. One audience member quotes Revelation 22:19 “If any man shall take away from the words…”
22. Elder Kunkle replies with Deut. 4:2, which has the same warning.
23. One audience member quotes John 8:58 – says Jesus claimed to be Elohim.
24. Elder Kunkle made a case for w_________ salvation (James 2, Phil 2, Acts 2, Eph 2:10 etc.)

Debriefing

1. What we wanted to do tonight was provide you a little t____________.
2. Most evangelical Christians do not know w________ they believe or w______ they believe it
3. Most Christians are completely inarticulate about what they believe and why they believe it.
4. We wanted you to take this test here, now, with me before you go out the door and have this test with “the r___________ t_____________”.
5. We need to be effective ambassadors for Jesus Christ and being an effective ambassador means that you have to know some things – you have to have k____________ of the t__________.
6. How many of you would be able to make the case that Jesus is God, the Holy Spirit is God and that the Father is God and that those 3 persons are together the one God, who offers salvation solely through f_______ in Christ by g____________ alone? Rate yourself on a scale of 1-10.
7. How well would you be able to r__________ from the Scripture? How prepared would you be?
8. 2 Timothy 2:15 – how many can say that we are workmen who do not need to be ashamed because we can accurately handle the God’s Word?
9. Many of you had courage to defend, but many of you did not accurately h________ God’s Word
10. I would much rather have you f_____________ in here, than with your Mormon neighbor.
11. We Christians spend most of our time talking with other Christians
12. Many of us are f___________ to open our mouths about Jesus because we don’t have answers to q____________ and o___________ that will come up in response
13. Apologetics is not some o_______________ thing we do as believers, apologetics is not a club for nerds. Apologetics should be an e____________ part of our discipleship under Jesus Christ.
14. It’s not enough to simply be right. Not only need knowledge, but w__________ and c________________ too…
15. How were you as representatives of Jesus Christ? He came in g_______ and t________ (John 1:14) and we need both.
16. Sometimes you’ve got to be made u____________ before you realize that you need to g________.
17. John 10:30 – you have to go further in reading that passage in order to make the case from that

 

Discussion Questions

1. Were the audience members winsome, kind, polite?
2. Did the audience members have good answers to the question to define what a Christian is?
3. Did the audience members have a good response to Elder Kunkle’s objections about the Trinity?
4. Did the audience members know the Scripture well? Were there times that they “faked it”?
5. Is it a good thing to tell a Mormon what he/she believes? Or is it better to let them tell you what they believe? (see Proverbs 18:13)