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Now as usual there was some hell to pay for this. Right before I met Jessica, some guy came by and asked for a tract. I gave him one, but he asked for another. I asked if he was going to read it, and he said he would. Suspicious, I told him he could make copies of it. An LDS girl came by and gave him her tract that I gave her earlier. As expected, he crumpled both tracts and threw them in the trash right in front of me. Then he had the audacity to ask me for another one, promising me that he would read it this time. I told the guy that the Bible said he was a liar, and that liars go to hell (cf. Rev. 21:8). I told him he needed to repent. He continued to bug me for a tract for the next five minutes while I continued to pass them out. Thank God he finally left. Then hours after I was able to lead Jessica to the Lord, and right when I was about ready to leave, one LDS guy came up to me to simply argue. After a while I noticed that I needed to stick around since it was Relief Society Saturday (this is the meeting LDS women have at the Conference Center the week before every General Conference), and large groups of women continued to pass by me. I continued to hold my signs up while this one guy wanted to argue with me. Pretty soon two other LDS guys came by to simply argue. None of them really wanted to listen. They all just wanted to shoot me down and give themselves some justification for remaining LDS. It got so frustrating after talking to these "blind" guys for well over an hour that I finally just had to walk away. As I left I simply told them to check the web site out.

Again, this is illustrative of the type of ministry headaches I deal with just to get the gospel out and see someone give her life to the Lord. Satan hates it, and tries to discourage me by sending antagonistic individuals along. Sadly, some of these antagonistic individuals are Christians who demean confrontational evangelism. Satan tries to take my eye off the ball as it were, but as I reflect, I know I must be doing something right. This is also reinforced when every time it seems I go out, I run into many Christians who are so thrilled that someone is out there counteracting all the nonsense. God is faithful in sending them along to encourage me to not give up.

Speaking of encouraging Christians, the following comes from my brother's latest newsletter. Greg has been a missionary to Serbia since right before all the Balkan wars of the last decade. You can check out his web site at www.SerbianOutreach.com. This is a great testimonial for preaching the whole truth regarding salvation, and I believe those of us doing ministry, not simply to LDS, need to heed his advice.

Have you ever had anyone criticize the way you share your faith with someone, saying stuff like--'You shouldn't have told him he will go to hell after he dies. That will just turn him off!' or 'You need to use less harshness in tone when you speak. You have to 'love' the person more' or 'Don't tell him he's wrong, just focus on the positive things.' I've noticed that a lot of times we Christians can get overly wrapped up in analyzing the approach we use when witnessing; almost to the point of believing that it is the approach that brings people to Christ and not the message behind it.

Something happened to me during this last trip in America that reminded me of the fact that it is the truth that sets people free from their sins, not 'political correctness.' Don't get me wrong; I don't believe we should be rude or obnoxious when we share our faith. The Gospel should always be proclaimed in a spirit of love and humility. But we must never deceive ourselves into thinking that watering down that message will bring more people into the Kingdom than just 'telling it like it is.'

One Wed. night after a church service I walked up to a girl that looked familiar to me and asked her, 'Do we know each other from someplace?' She replied, 'Yeah, we sure do. I used to give you hell in high school!' I stood back a little shocked and asked her to explain, still not remembering how I knew her. 'You used to come up to the table my friends and I would sit at during the lunch breaks to try to talk to us about Jesus all the time. Every time you would come up to us we would heckle you, yell at you, swear, etc. I'll never forget one time in particular after you tried to talk to us, without much success, how you calmly closed your Bible and said, 'Look, I have to let you know--if you don't listen to this message you're going to go to Hell.' We were laughing and joking as you walked away, but then all of the sudden we looked at each other and a heavy seriousness came over us. A few of us said something like, 'Man, what if this guy is telling us the truth?!' That left a heavy impression on my mind that I was unable to erase. Then after high school I started working for a company that had a lot of Christians in it. These Christians watered the seed you planted and I soon became a Christian myself. I started coming to this church and saw your picture on the wall [missionary photo]. I always wanted to write to you and thank you for trying to witness to me in high school, but I was too embarrassed because of the way I used to treat you. So I'll tell you now--thanks! Know truly that 'God's Word doesn't return void.' I'm living proof! Your striving to reach us was worth it. Not all of us got saved. Some of us are even dead [probably referring to drug overdose]. But a few of us responded and it was worth it. Thank you.'

I was overwhelmed with joy!! All I could say was, 'There's no need to be embarrassed. That was the old you!! You've made my whole day!! This is incredible!!!' I gave her a big hug and said goodbye. I could hardly wait to get home to tell the rest of my family what happened!

I am planning on spending the month of December with Greg and his family in the U.K. and Serbia. This will not simply be a Christmas vacation; it will also be a time for me to do some teaching at a friend's church in England as well as various churches in Serbia. This will require a lot of money, but I'm trusting that God will provide it through you--my support team.

Thank you for every prayer said on my behalf, and for every check written on my behalf.

Rob Sivulka
Rob@Mormon Info.org
Mormon Info

****PRAYER LIST****

1. For God to move more people to do street ministry downtown
2. For Utah churches and individual Christians to support each other's various ministries
3. For financial provision
4. For the ability to get my rough draft comprehensive done soon

****MAILBAG****

It was great to see you too - and hear you do a "mini sermon"! You did a great job of stressing biblical baptism. I know it will be a milestone for Corbin a wonderful memory. Take care and keep in touch!

Rob, ...I wasn't familiar with the 1 Cor. 15:45 verse. Hmmm. When I bring up John 4:24 I usually show that in context it's saying that God is not in one place (hence, the reason they don't need to worship in a particular place). What would their response to that be? I've heard them say before that God's "influence" is everywhere, even if he isn't. But I don't really understand how they think this works. Are there any other verses you prefer to demonstrate God's non-physical nature? God bless!

[I responded:] Ya, that's the other point I make too! You're right on to show the context of Jn. 4:24. They would play the "influence" card. Look, I have an influence on the Biola team at Biola even though I'm not there. That's what they try to claim. Did I give you 1 Kings 8:27? Also Jer. 23:24 (just make sure to clarify that God doesn't physically fill the universe). After this, I'd try to point out that the passages say that "God" fills, not His "influence" fills. After this, I'd go into philosophy to show that God being in one place at a time in which He needs His body to act according to physical laws that have an upward limit makes no sense with God's influence being everywhere present. If God physically "sees" and "hears" a situation unfolding, His response requires time. As such, it may come too late if it has to go through certain physical channels. For example, some suicidal girl calls her friend and tells her if she doesn't give her the thing she needs to hear "immediately", then she'll kill herself. God sees and hears the situation from His throne, but His feedback may get back to the counselor too late. God can't work "immediately", but only "mediately", and that seems rather weak. It doesn't seem to fit well with the truly omnipotent God that we've always assumed. Does this make sense? Rob

I just read the Saints Alive newsletter about Manti. You handled yourself well. It sounds Spirit-led as you responded in faith. Lots of critics among Christians on how to witness to the cults, so you may have met a few frowns but I hope not.

[The following is from a buddy of mine that I led to the Lord a while ago, who used to be LDS:] Rob, I went to the LDS Church after I was in the Methodist service and first thing they did was to ask me to greet people. Without thinking I walked up in their fast and testimony meeting and gave a Christian testimony and I thought it was amazing. I think witnessing to these people is great and the fact that I will know them one on one will help me witness to them. ...I am slowly coming to stands on what I believe on theological issues. One I have questions on is Eternal Security. Is it biblical? What makes the Apocrapha non-scripture? Gotta get,

[I responded:] Glad to hear you're still hanging with the Christians. As for eternal security (or "P"erseverance of the saints) being biblical, it depends on who you ask. I think it is biblical (Rom. 8:28ff., Phil. 1:6, Heb. 12:2, etc.).

As for the Old Testament Apocrapha, they weren't in the Hebrew canon that was around at Jesus' time (Judiaism entirely rejected them), Jesus never quoted from them, let alone as "the Word of God", and I don't even think they claim to be Scripture. They were also put as an addendum to the canonical Septuagint [LXX]). In Tob. 12:9 almsgiving is an expression of good works meritorious of salvation, which of course Protestants have a big time problem with. This doesn't mean they aren't worthwhile. I've read them myself, but I don't regard them as Scripture. And neither do I with the New Testament Apocrapha. H. F. Vos said that "Heretical tendencies and popular beliefs and superstitions are writ large in these works. One can discern the slippage of the teachings of grace and a corresponding rise of legalism, a growing veneration of Mary, and an increase of sacramentalism" ("Evangelical Dictionary of Theology" (Elwell, ed. [Baker, 1984], 65). This is by no means to give you an exhaustive and deep answer... just some things to be alerted to on a surface level. For a more in depth treatment, get F. F. Bruce's "The Canon of Scripture" (IVP). Rob

Dear Rob, ...I have been interested in ministering to Mormons for a while now. I don't know if you know Kurt Van Gorden, but he was down here in So. Cal. passing out tracts in front of the temple that just was dedicated here in Redlands. I helped with that the last week. I have studied Mormonism for a while and know enough to know why I will not choose Mormonism, but I don't know enough to really witness, not yet. (I know that it is what God will do through me not on what I know but knowledge helps.) But I feel led to Mormons and my sister sent me the news letter she got and she said that I could contact you to ask some questions because what you are doing right now is kind of what I thought I could do in the future. Is it okay for me to email you some questions I have? Please let me know. I will be praying for you and your ministry.