“I don’t know.”
I was stunned. A couple of Mormon missionaries had swung by, so I had invited them in for cookies and a frank discussion. I had asked questions and we had some good back and forth, but they seemed hesitant to commit to things where they knew they didn’t have a good answer. To be fair, they were both fresh out of high school, so some of it might have been nerves. But the moment that really floored me was when I asked them if God the Father was a created being.
“I don’t know.”
In sarcasm I wanted to reply, “Well, I know. You do believe that.” I didn’t, of course, but it was tempting. One of the things I found interesting throughout the conversation was the general posture my new Mormon friends took. They sought repeatedly to find common ground. They asked me to explain my view of the Trinity, and said it was pretty close to theirs. They tried to explain some of the crazier sounding stuff away. They were sure Mormonism was right, but I had a hard time getting out of them how Mormonism was different from what I believed.
This is part of a broader trend that I have seen. Recently I saw a clip of Hindu Vivek Ramaswamy trying to argue that Hinduism was a monotheistic religion. A few weeks earlier, during the memorial for Charlie Kirk, our Catholic Secretary of State Marco Rubio gave a surprisingly clear presentation of the gospel (although any calls for faith and/or works were conspicuously absent). Several years ago, I had a Muslim friend who started visiting our church with his roommate, a Christian and regular attender at our church. This Muslim told me that we as Christians and Muslims were very similar, not like the Hindus or Buddhists (apparently no one told Vivek). He said that repeatedly, to many people. “We are very similar.” The same mantra I heard from Mormons, Catholics, and even Hindus.
So what is happening? And how should we respond to all of this?
Satan’s Strategy
Satan is the master deceiver, and Satan loves to lie. Now, one of the things to realize is that, in order to be effective, liars can’t lie all the time about everything. After all, if someone came up to you on a sunny day and said, “Man, it’s raining really hard right now!” you would be unlikely to believe anything else that man said. Too much lying can be dangerous. The best liars know how to mix in enough truth to make their lies believable.
So what is Satan’s plan with cults and false religions in America? At least for right now? It seems to be to make them sound as evangelically Christian as possible, and minimize all the serious, heretical, soul-damning lies. “We’re just like you!” they gleefully cry. Catholics who are really strong to emphasize grace and faith, and only grudgingly talk about works, merit, and confession if pressed. Mormons who want to talk in terms of “the Godhead” rather than the Trinity, and who aren’t sure if God the Father was created. Muslims who tell you that at least you’re both monotheists, so you’re on the same team and worship the same God.
In some ways it feels like gaslighting, to use an overused expression. I have at times been frustrated and almost wanted to ask, “So how are you different from standard orthodox Christian teaching?” Sometimes it seems I have to get someone to grudgingly admit there is even a difference before the conversation can begin. This is a new form of ecumenism. To try to win over gullible and careless Christians, Satan has attempted to make false teaching as close as possible to biblical teaching.
A Dangerous Opportunity
A few weeks back, I wrote an article defending the idea that Christians could participate in the political process with Muslims, Mormons, and Catholics. I received some pushback, which I expected and overall found helpful. Although I still stand by my overall contention that the political process is inherently coalition building, and we can build political coalitions with people of other faiths, I do think it’s worth qualifying that position. While I think political coalitions are acceptable, I do think that they can cause confusion if we are not careful.
To me it seems that there has been a genuine impact made on our country by the assassination of Charlie Kirk. I know that people have been thinking about God more, buying Bibles more, and attending church more. I know the week after his death was one of the largest non-Easter services we’ve had at our church in a long time. There is talk of revival, and Charlie Kirk’s memorial service sent the gospel out to millions and millions of people.
Satan, of course, hates all of this and will do whatever he can to pollute it. His trick is an old one: promise success on the altar of pragmatic compromise. Get Christians to tone down some of the divisive rhetoric, get everyone together, and watch what we can do when we Mormons, Catholics, and conservative Christians band together! Let’s erase doctrinal divisions, let’s smile and say that we’re all on the same team. If Satan can convince us that the best way forward is to get murky on the clear truths of Scripture, then he can undermine any genuine good that might otherwise have come of this moment in our culture.
An Uncomfortable Truth
So how do we fight back? How do we keep from being sucked into this ecumenical black hole where we all smile and pat each other on the back and say that we’re all really on the same team. We do it by holding doggedly and unashamedly to the centrality of the gospel and the clear warning that salvation is by grace, through faith, in the name of Jesus Christ alone. And that all other paths lead straight to hell. That might sour the coalition. That might lead to some raised eyebrows or some rude looks. But we can’t lose that.
Now obviously, there is room for tact in carrying this out. I didn’t tell my Mormon friends on their way out the door that they were on their way to hell. I did seek to undermine what they taught and to show them their distance from biblical Christianity. We need to graciously but firmly make clear that while we might partner with Catholics, Mormons, or other such groups on political matters, we have irreconcilable differences with them on spiritual matters.
Now, it’s possible that Satan’s plan backfires on him. That he allows those he has deceived to get so close to the light the blinders fall off and they truly get saved. That’s what happened to my Muslim friend. But it didn’t come about by emphasizing how similar we were. It came as our church and other fellow Christians emphasized how different we were.
True spiritual revival will only occur as we make clear that Jesus is the only path to heaven, and it’s by grace and faith alone, not by works. So yes, we should take advantage of the cultural moment and point people back to Christ. But we do so following Christ, His Word, and His law. We do so without compromising the Scriptures, or somehow giving the impression that we are all on the same team. And who knows? Maybe if we hold tightly to the gospel, we just might see a whole lot more good done than if we loosened up our doctrine so that we could have a bigger impact.
Ben Hicks is the Associate Pastor at Colonial Hills Baptist Church in Indianapolis. This article originally appeared on his Substack.
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