A Bishop Preaching Against Christ

“And again, I exhort you, my brethren, that ye deny not the gifts of God, …” 

I can’t believe it, did my ears deceive me??  I actually heard the bishop preach from the pulpit against the gifts of God being manifest in our day!  This is crazy.  What is the entire Mormon religion based upon, if not based upon the concept that God speaks and acts in our day? 

The first thoughts to come into my mind are of chapters 7 & 10 of Moroni, and the teachings of Christ in the New Testament and 3rd Nephi.  Perhaps I would not have thought it so bad if I hadn’t already heard this rhetoric a couple of times before, maybe I could have misunderstood the first couple of times, maybe I misunderstood this time, but if I didn’t misunderstand, this is a very dangerous game that the bishop is playing with other people’s souls. 

There are many gifts of God, and they all come from the Spirit of God: faith, healing, dreams, visions, tongues, interpretations, prophecy, revelation, angels and ministering spirits, etc.  Every good gift comes of the Spirit of Christ, and leads us to Christ.  Can you believe that someone would so blatantly preach against the gifts of Christ?  This is how God works, which will never be done away, unless by unbelief, by lack of faith.  And if they lack faith in Christ, then they cannot lay claim upon the atonement. 

Those who preach against God working the same as He has always done, are not of God.  They do not have the gifts of God and therefore teach others that those things are done away, but it is a poor strategy to hold onto power and authority, which is like trying to hold onto the wind, as soon as it’s captured, it doesn’t exist. 

“… For every thing which inviteth to do good, and to persuade to believe in Christ, is sent forth by the power and gift of Christ; wherefore ye may know with a perfect knowledge it is of God. But whatsoever thing persuadeth men to do evil, and believe not in Christ, and deny him, and serve not God, then ye may know with a perfect knowledge it is of the devil…” 

Have faith in Christ.  Have faith in the Father.  They are the same today as ever, and they work by the Holy Spirit according to our faith.  The gifts of God are all real, and they are given to us by the Spirit of God, and by our faith do we lay hold on them as we lay hold on eternal life. 

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