Pastor Jim Wallace of The Rising Tide church is blogging about a mission trip that he is leading this week. The trip is for the youth in his church, and for their trip, they have traveled to Utah where they will interact with Mormons all week long. Each day, they’ll be posting updates on their daily activities. They state their purpose as follows:
We go to Utah because those who have rejected the FREE GIFT of Salvation and exchanged it for another Gospel of Works have placed themselves in an accursed position. We simply want to share the liberating truth of the Gospel of Grace. It’s not about debating. It’s not about arguing. It’s not about winning a point. It’s ALL ABOUT RESCUING. We go today to rescue those who have wandered from the truth. May God protect us on our journey…
You can keep up with them all week long by reading their blog.
Oh my bad I thought Jesus did the rescuing. Now I have to rethink this whole idiot thing. As far as accursed mormons ago I know a few accursed Christians personally would you like their number I am sure they would appreciate any help. Or maybe not.
I repent for taking such a hard line on the mission trip. Thankfully God uses ridiculousness of the well intended albeit misquided to achieve his ends otherwise it would be as bad as i made it out to be. What if christians quit trying to do Gods work and instead abandoned themselves to Gods will and therby achieved God’s plan for them and for those he intends to redeem? Wouldn’t it be refreshing to hear a Christian say that he was being lead to Utah for the sole purpose of doing whatsoever God has intended to do and that he or she felt totally incapable of doing it as opposed to the arrogant positioning of oneself in the role of rescuer? The language suggests that one has within their ability the potential to save another from error and this is erroneous. Has that person forgotten or have they never been aware of the fact that if they have been rescued at all it is by the merciful grace of God? As far as the Mormons go I do not understand the differentiation between accursed persons regardless of affiliation. I got the distinct impression that somehow some differnetiation was being made that cast the mormon in a particularly offensive light. Accursed is accursed and I meant what I said about knowing a few “christians” in need of rescue and incidently the appear to be model Christians by all indications if you take certain thigs into account like frequent trips to church and other church endorsed activities, read trendy christain literature, own several “good” worship cds and have been on at least one garden variety mission trips, not the real rescuing type metioned above. I think I have made my point.
Wallace: “those who have rejected the FREE GIFT of Salvation and exchanged it for another Gospel of Works have placed themselves in an accursed position.”
Raphael: “As far as the Mormons go I do not understand the differentiation between accursed persons regardless of affiliation”
Wallace’s statement is probably based on the passages in Galatians 1 in which Paul says, “If anyone preaches a different gospel, let him be accursed.”
Wallace: “It’s ALL ABOUT RESCUING. We go today to rescue those who have wandered from the truth.”
Raphael: “The language suggests that one has within their ability the potential to save another from error and this is erroneous.”
I think we should be careful not to judge Wallace’s theology based on a single sentence. For the apostle Paul who wrote the sentence “It is no longer I who live, but Christ who lives in me” (Gal 2:20) also wrote the sentence “How do you know O wife whether you will save your husband?” (1 Cor 7:16). Paul speaks both of Christ doing everything, and of us doing things. It is a great mystery.